Date of closure: January 2009
Address (for reference only):
Independent Club
Victoria Parade
Deal
CT14 7BP
The Regent was converted to a bingo hall in 1965, in the wake of the 1960 Gaming Act. The hall has remained a family run business since just after World War 2, first as a cinema and then as the Regent Bingo Club. From 1965 to its closing in 2009, the hall was run by Robin Bloom. The closure was blamed on a number of factors, including the opening of a new club in nearby Thanet, a fall in attendance following the smoking ban and the rise of the game online. Following the closure of this club, 14 staff were made redundant and the town of Deal is left without its own bingo hall. At the moment the future of the building is not certain. The below image of the exterior of the club is reproduced courtesy of Colin Baker.
By David Lloyd (January 2009)
Update
Since closing, the venue has been purchased by two businessmen who hope to reopen it as the Silver Screen Cinema in late 2014. The multi-million pound conversion will have three screens, and restoration to the exterior facade will be part of the work undertaken.
By Gareth Whieldon (July 2013)
Other Lost Halls In The Area
Regent Bingo Deal’s exterior has been well preserved, and the paintwork is a standard mix of seaside resort pastels. A city based cinema or bingo hall would never choose such laid-back colours for the exterior. Most urban bingo halls are not actively painted, and if they do for example use a blue it’s more likely to be an eye catching royal blue.
The interior shots show that the premises may have been altered with a mezzanine installed, or perhaps the alteration is merely a suspended ceiling for lighting purposes.
By Gareth Whieldon (September 2010)
If you have any photos from this lost hall, be it of its interior, the staff, special events, parties, customers and more; and you’d like to share them here, please contact us to arrange adding them to the site.
It was my dear mother who used this bingo hall over many years. In fact I was about six years old when she started going there right up until I was 45 when it shut down. Her name is Hazel Race and she use to go with her now departed friend Mary Brown, they would always share there winnings even if one went sometimes without the other. My mum now sadly has Dementia which strangely started roughly a year or so after the bingo shutdown. I personally think that and family matters at the time sent my mum in to a depression at the time and triggered her dementia off. Anyway it’s sad how times change in many ways.