Address and Contact Details:
Independent Club
Shorty's Bingo And Social Club
83 High Street
Cowdenbeath
KY4 9QA
Telephone Number: 01383 510045
Club Email: shortyssocialclub@gmail.com
Shorty’s occupies a building with a genuinely remarkable bingo history, having been pulled back from the brink by its own long-serving manager. The building opened as the Picture House on 30 June 1920, a substantial cinema seating around 1,500, before being taken over by the Glasgow-based A. B. King circuit and rebuilt in 1934 as the New Picture House with an Art Deco makeover, seating around 1,370. It was later acquired by J. B. Milne Theatres, an operator already closely tied to the bingo world, and in 1966 bingo was introduced part-time alongside the films, running concurrently for around 15 years before the cinema finally closed in the early 1980s and the building became full-time bingo. Remarkably, the original projection equipment is still in the building today, a rare surviving piece of its cinema past.
The club subsequently traded as Premier Bingo Cowdenbeath, one of just three clubs run by the small independent Scottish operator alongside Perth and Alloa. That chapter ended abruptly on 2 August 2023, when Premier Bingo collapsed into administration and closed the Cowdenbeath and Perth clubs with immediate effect. Rather than let the hall disappear, manager Thomas Wilson, who had worked there for 25 years, took on the lease himself, with regulars pitching in to help clean, redecorate and raise funds to get the doors open again. He renamed it Shorty’s Social Club, after his late mother’s nickname, and the venue reopened in 2024. Today it remains open at 83 High Street, offering paper and electronic bingo, tabletop games and gaming machines across sessions running Tuesday to Sunday, a genuine rescue story for a bingo hall whose roots stretch back well over a century.
Opening Times:
The club opening hours are as follows. Please note these were correct at the time of publication, but are liable to change so please check with the club before you leave:
- Monday: TBC
- Tuesday: TBC
- Wednesday: TBC
- Thursday: TBC
- Friday: TBC
- Saturday: TBC
- Sunday: TBC
Main Session Times
Listed below are the club’s main session times but are liable to change – confirm with the club first.
| Morning Main | Afternoon Main | Evening Main | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Tues | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Wed | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Thu | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Fri | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Sat | TBC | TBC | TBC |
| Sun | TBC | TBC | TBC |
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Other Clubs In The Area
Here are some photos of the Cowdenbeath Shorty’s Bingo on High Street from Twitter and Facebook, to give you a flavour of the club, its customers and decoration. The photographers are unknown, but if one of these is yours let us know and we’ll add a credit.
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What Cowdenbeath bingo lacks in decor it makes up in fantastic characters that go there every week. It’s like a comedy club and the staff are brill especially Chris “the joker” and Lisa always cleaning. Everyone’s friendly.
After it was owned by A.B. King it was owned by J.B. Milne the Dundee cinema owner he tried to get permission to build a second cinema onto the back of the building in the car park area but permission was turned down on safety grounds. Shortly after this he started bingo part time then eventually it went full time.
After J. B. Milne’s death in 1968 the cinema chain was sold to Kingsway Entertainments in 1970 who in turn eventually started selling off the bingo halls to other companies only retaining the most profitable halls some of which were kept on part time films and bingo until it got to the point that bingo was making more money than the films were and they became full time bingo halls.