Date of closure: 31st March 2023
Address (for reference only):
Buzz Bingo (Lost Halls)
9 Englishgate Plaza
Botchergate
Carlisle
CA1 1RP
Carlisle’s Buzz Bingo was a very different proposition to the old cinema conversions, a genuinely modern club built as part of the Englishgate Plaza development on Botchergate. Opening on the upper floor of a purpose-built mixed-use scheme close to Carlisle railway station, its opening date is unusually well documented, having launched as Gala Bingo on 1 April 2004, with its own car park for around 100 cars. It offered the standard modern format of traditional and electronic bingo, a slots and arcade area, bar and diner, cash machine and smoking area, sitting close to The Venue Carlisle and opposite the Vue cinema in the town’s Botchergate leisure quarter. It remained Gala for around fourteen years before becoming Buzz Bingo in September 2018 as part of the company’s wider rebrand.
The club had a brush with closure during the pandemic, temporarily shutting in July 2020 along with 25 other Buzz venues, but managed to negotiate terms with its landlord and reopened that October. It didn’t survive the industry’s second wave of restructuring though. In March 2023 Buzz announced nine closures across its estate, citing post-pandemic changes in customer behaviour, falling consumer confidence and rising energy and operating costs, and Carlisle’s final day of trading was 31 March 2023, giving the club a neat lifespan of exactly nineteen years. The building wasn’t simply abandoned afterwards. Plans were submitted in August 2023 to convert the former bingo floor into a new entertainment venue offering crazy golf, virtual darts, bowling and family arcade games, aiming to keep the space as a leisure destination even if bingo itself was no longer part of the offer.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
Here are some photos of the Carlisle Buzz Bingo on Englishgate Plaza 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.
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I’ve been going to the Gala Bingo for sometime now. I’m 32 years old &, I originally stopped working & to kill some spare time I started going to this Gala Bingo in Carlisle. I really enjoy it, they have a great team of very friendly staff who are always willing to help if you need it. Through going there I’ve met a lot of new friends so I would reconmend this place to anybody & I hope thay keep doing great work. I’m sure they will! When I first went I tried looking for a error or somthing that wasn’t right with in the place & I couldnt find anything wrong with the place. Even the boss himself likes to talk with the customers as well as the staff what makes this place a very friendly & exciting place to visit.
Is this the gala bingo near the station