I went to Ned,s launch of both the books, the theatre history of the area is new to me and fascinating, the cinema book is an update of Ned,s earlier book, which I also have, that was originally published in around 1984. To be honest Im not at all suprised the Hippodrome is going to be demolished with, what seems to be Dudley Councils blessing.
The only thing Dudley council are capable of is giving building permission to build countless houses without making any thought into the additional road traffic and extra load on the areas infrasctructure and then belly aching about it after. Presumably these developers must be lubricating a few back pockets somewhere, in fact I suspect Dudley Councils planning department, and I use the term "Planning" loosly, is headed by a 12 year old school kid.
As for preserving the areas heritage the council is one big joke, at the moment there is a building of significant historical interest in Stourbridge that is falling down, this is the foundry where the first steam locomotive to run in America was built, they appear to have no interests in this building.