Bridgwater Mecca Bingo – Penel Orlieu

Bridgwater’s Mecca had a genuinely unusual history, occupying part of a former Odeon cinema for almost half a century while the rest of the building carried on showing films around it. The Odeon opened in 1936 as part of Oscar Deutsch’s expanding chain, an attractive streamlined building that became one of the town’s principal entertainment venues. Rather than converting the whole site in one go, around 1974 the front stalls were turned into a Mecca Bingo club while the rear continued operating as a cinema, meaning bingo and films ran simultaneously under one roof for decades, a rare arrangement compared to most cinema conversions. Because the building had already been split for dual use, the bingo hall didn’t get the vast uninterrupted auditorium seen at places like Taunton or Sunderland, feeling instead more intimate and functional, though the exterior still clearly gave away its cinema roots.

By the 2000s it offered the standard modern Mecca setup, with traditional paper bingo, Mecca Max electronic terminals, a slots area, licensed bar and diner, disabled access and an easy walk from the town centre and bus station. In July 2022, Rank announced the club would close as part of its post-pandemic review, thanking customers for 48 years of loyalty, and it shut permanently at the end of August 2022. That closure brought an end to 86 years of continuous entertainment use in the building overall, and not long after, the remaining Scott Cinemas operation also moved out to a new multiplex, leaving the old Odeon standing empty for the first time since 1936.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Taunton Mecca Bingo – Corporation Street