Date of closure: 2024
Address (for reference only):
Buzz Bingo (Lost Halls)
Hengrove Leisure Park
Bristol
BS14 OBZ
Hengrove was purpose-built as a bingo hall from the ground up, opening in 1998 as Gala Bingo Hengrove as part of the brand-new Hengrove Leisure Park, built on the former site of Whitchurch Airport, Bristol’s original airfield. It stayed Gala until the 2018 Gala Coral split rebranded every club in the estate as Buzz Bingo, same building, same layout, just a lick of new paint and signage. And that layout was function over flourish: a rectangular auditorium, high ceilings, suspended lighting, fully carpeted, with an integrated slots arcade, café, bar and a big foyer with membership desk. No balconies, no plasterwork, no cinema ghosts, just a comfortable, efficient 1990s leisure box seating somewhere in the region of 900-1,200 players, built with electronic bingo in mind from day one rather than retrofitted later like most older halls.
While it was open it offered the full modern spread: paper bingo, electronic terminals, daily afternoon and evening sessions plus weekday mornings, a decent slots area, bar, café, cash machine, hearing loop and disabled access. Its leisure-park location also meant players could easily pair a session with the cinema or a meal next door, plus hundreds of free parking spaces most town-centre clubs could only dream of. It closed permanently in 2024, not through decline in the traditional sense but redevelopment: the surrounding Hengrove Park land is being turned over to housing as part of Bristol’s wider regeneration plans, and with no listed status or historic character to fight for, the closure passed with little of the public objection that saves old cinema-conversion halls elsewhere.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
We’ve managed to locate some publicly shared photos of the Hengrove Buzz Bingo on Hengrove Leisure Park 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.
