The White City roller rink and the Olympia Cinema are pictured on Northumberland Road in 1912. Both buildings were three years old when the photo was taken, and were built as replacements for older palaces of entertainment.
The White City’s story begins in 1890, when the famous Victorian showman George Ginnett opened a circus in a temporary building on the parade ground next to the Army Riding School. Ginnett only lasted a couple of years, but his building became more permanent when it was refurbished and reopened as a downmarket theatre called the Hippodrome. It closed in 1908 and was demolished, making space for the White City.
The original Olympia opened next door in 1893 as a variety theatre. It was one of the first theatres in Newcastle to dabble in movies, when an American picture company began a short season there in 1903. It was during another movie season in 1905 that the Olympia hosted what was reputedly Britain’s first beauty contest.
In December of that year, female contestants lined up for the Blonde and Brunette Beauty Show, competing for the prize of a gold bangle. The show lasted all week, but got off to a bad start on the first night, with the Newcastle Daily Chronicle reporting that “none of the weaker sex could be induced to compete”. The Olympia burned down two years later, in December 1907.
The White City and the new Olympia opened within days of each other in December 1909, the White City as a roller skating rink, occupying the site of the Hippodrome. But this was the tail end of a skating craze that had swept the country, and the White City closed in 1912. Its beautiful white dome was lopped off and it became a dance hall, which was called, once again, the Hippodrome.
Its neighbour, the Olympia, catered for the next craze in Newcastle — going to the movies — and was a successful cinema until 1961. The building on the far right of the old photo was built at the same time as the new Olympia in 1909, in the same style, and was occupied by Rossleigh’s Olympia Garage. The Hippodrome was demolished in 1933 and Rossleigh built a much larger garage on that site as well.
Northumberland Road changed beyond recognition in the early 1970s when John Dobson Street cut through it, making its incision where Rossleigh’s garage stood on the site of the Hippodrome/White City. The Army Riding School has survived and can be seen in the distance in both pictures, it is nowadays known as the Drill Hall and is occupied by Northumbria University.