{"https:\/\/d2dzi65yjecjnt.cloudfront.net\/871-1.jpg":"ell brown^:^http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ell-r-brown\/3647575393\/^:^http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/","https:\/\/d2dzi65yjecjnt.cloudfront.net\/871-2.jpg":"ell brown^:^http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ell-r-brown\/3647584219\/^:^http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/","https:\/\/d2dzi65yjecjnt.cloudfront.net\/871-5.jpg":"ell brown^:^http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/ell-r-brown\/3648386032\/^:^http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/","https:\/\/d2dzi65yjecjnt.cloudfront.net\/871-6.jpg":"Oosoom at English Wikipedia^:^http:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Birmingham_Hippodrome.jpg^:^http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0"}
Birmingham Hippodrome was built in 1899 and is a popular venue in Birmingham for the performing arts. It has the reputation of being the oldest theater in the city, and is also home to the Birmingham Royal Ballet (arguably Britain's finest ballet company). The Hippodrome received a large amount of lottery funding to turn it into an even more appealing venue.