London Hippodrome Minstrel Gallery

 

This is a square wooden Minstrel Gallery which surrounds the very top centre of the auditorium.

Above it is the once sliding circular roof which opened to allow acrobats to dive from the roof into the water tank at stalls level.

The Minstrel Gallery is the most complete remaining feature of the original auditorium, but you can see from the images that most of the plasterwork surrounding it has gone.

 

 

Above - Minstrel Gallery rail showing part of the sliding circular roof above

Above - Minstrel Gallery rail with part of Peter Stringfellow's now defunct moveable lighting protruding from below

Above -Inside the Minstrel Gallery - showing a plethora of ancient switches and the Stringfellow lighting equipment protruding through the floor

Above - View from the Minstrel Gallery to the Gallery Stage Right

Above - Minstrel Gallery rail and top of proscenium arch.