Leeds Mecca Bingo (Mayfair) – New York Street

The Mayfair was Leeds’ city-centre Mecca, and a genuinely different proposition to the much bigger suburban club at Balm Road across town. It stood at 50 New York Street, right in the heart of Leeds’ shopping and nightlife district, and Leeds City Council’s 2011 retail and leisure study identified it as the only bingo hall actually within the city centre at the time, with the other five Leeds clubs all located out of town. There’s no reliably confirmed opening date, but it was established as the Mayfair Bingo Club well before Mecca branding took over, and was still being treated as the city’s principal central bingo venue by 2011. It held around 800 players, a serious city-centre venue even without the acres of parking that defined clubs like Balm Road, offering traditional bingo, electronic touchscreen games, gaming machines, a bar and food.

Its central location meant Mecca could use the Mayfair for more than standard sessions in its later years, hosting events like Bonkers Bingo and Bingo’in Crazy aimed at younger, night-out crowds, and it clearly drew people beyond Leeds too, with a 2019 Bradford retail study finding 3.4% of Bradford residents’ bingo trips went specifically to the Mayfair. It also played a genuine community role, taking part in the Leeds Rhinos Foundation’s Christmas donation campaign during the pandemic. The building itself changed hands commercially in May 2017, selling for £4.12 million while Mecca continued operating there, and the club was still hosting events as late as 2024 before closing permanently, with an exact final session date not yet confirmed. Its loss left Leeds without a dedicated city-centre bingo hall, a different kind of gap to the one left by Balm Road’s closure, since the Mayfair had built its identity on urban footfall and nightlife rather than car parking and scale.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Bradford Mecca Bingo – Little Horton Lane
• Bradford Silver Birch Bingo – Birch Lane
• Bradford Top Rank Bingo – Prince’s Way
• Leeds Top Ten Bingo – Queen/Albion Street
• Nelson Palace Bingo & Social Club – Leeds Road