Date of closure: October 2022
Address (for reference only):
Witnall Automatics (Lost Halls)
Clifton Bingo
Westbury Street
Leominster
HR6 8BJ
Clifton Bingo was a proper cinema-to-bingo conversion, and a handsome one. The Clifton Cinema opened on 31 October 1936, built by the West Midlands-based Clifton Cinema group and designed by Ernest S. Roberts, who drew up a number of the circuit’s Midlands houses. It seated around 800 in a single auditorium with a balcony, and sat on the prominent corner of South Street and Westbury Street. Herefordshire’s conservation assessment describes a stuccoed, concave Art Deco frontage with a large glazed window and a circular foyer, complete with an original pay kiosk that survived into its bingo years. It isn’t listed, but it matters to the Leominster Conservation Area. Essoldo took the cinema over in 1979 and closed it on 10 March 1980, converting it into an Essoldo Square Deal Bingo Club. The conversion cost some original interior and exterior features, according to Historic England, though the main auditorium survived.
Bingo then ran for over four decades under three identities. Essoldo gave way to Top Ten Bingo, which kept the old auditorium as its main playing space and closed the club in 2010. That wasn’t the end: an independent operator reopened it as Clifton Bingo by 2014, a friendly, inexpensive local club with paper and electronic games, a bar and an arcade area, and regulars regularly praised the staff and food. It closed in October 2022 after eight years, and with it Herefordshire lost its last purpose-built bingo hall, according to the council’s 2022 retail assessment.
The building survives. It was marketed as roughly 7,600 sq ft with parking for about 20 cars, and in 2024 plans emerged to turn it into a KFC and a second takeaway unit, subdividing the old auditorium to create a first-floor space while keeping the 1936 frontage and round lobby. The scheme drew local opposition, and the latest council material I could see still showed it as an open planning matter.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
Here are some photos of the Leominster Clifton Bingo on Westbury 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.
Also, if you have photos to add here, please contact us here to share them.
Please can you tell me how often you do the bingo revolution and what dates from now to Xmas they are please
You’ll need to contact the club directly for that information, we’re not them, we just feature their details.