Date of closure: 14th August 2022
Address (for reference only):
Mecca Bingo (Lost Halls)
Broad Street
Halifax
HX1 1YA
Long before the caller’s voice ever echoed round this club, it was the Halifax Odeon – thrown open on 27th June 1938 at a cost of £59,727, with a jaw-dropping 2,058 seats and that unmistakable landmark tower still standing sentinel over the town today (Mecca signage and all). Like so many Odeons of the era, it’s all steel and glass restraint on the outside, streamline moderne styling that gave nothing away – then bright, bold, colour-drenched interiors once you stepped through the doors, a trick this building has clearly never forgotten. The silver screen went dark for good on 18th October 1975, and just months later, in February 1976, fire tore through the building. It bounced back in 1977 as a Top Rank Bingo Club before eventually becoming Mecca – Halifax’s last surviving bingo hall.
By the time it closed, the club offered daily afternoon and evening sessions, 30 EBingo terminals alongside the traditional books, a bar, café and table service, plus decent accessibility provision (four disabled seats, a disabled toilet and step-free access) for a 600-seat house – a fraction of its cinema-day capacity, but still a proper night out. Covid finished what decades of change couldn’t: footfall never recovered post-pandemic, and in July 2022 Mecca confirmed the site would shut. The doors closed for the last time on 14th August 2022, taking 20 jobs with them. The building – Grade II listed, tower and all – has stood empty ever since.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
We’ve managed to locate some publicly shared photos of the Halifax Mecca Bingo on Broad Street from Twitter and Facebook, to give you a flavour of the club’s interior.
If you have photos to add here, please contact us here to share them.
