Date of closure: 2006
Address (for reference only):
Carlton Bingo (Lost Halls)
Canmore Street
Dunfermline
KY12 7NX
Dunfermline lost one of their Carlton Bingo halls in 2006, but luckily for local residents, there is another Carlton Bingo Club in Dunfermline. The Canmore Street hall closed around the time that many halls were closing across the country, although we don’t have confirmation as to whether it closed due to the same causes that affected many other clubs. If you do have any details please let us know.
The hall was located on the site of the Alhambra Theatre which opened in 1922 with seating for 17000 patrons. It was built on a slope and although it had a reasonable seating capacity, its exterior was not as grand as many of the city theatres of the day. The interior was and still is quite plush in terms of the plaster work throughout, and the frieze among other details.
It was converted into a cinema in the thirties, as many theatres were, and continued to show films until the sixties when it was taken over as a bingo hall. Bingo reigned for an impressive forty years before its closure. Luckily the building is Grade ‘B’ listed, and has been re-opened as a theatre, which although not a boon for bingo players, at least it continues to serve up entertainment to the community.
This was a brand new purpose built club which replaced the Alhambra bingo hall in Dunfermline. After standing empty for a while a businessman bought the Alhambra refurbished it back to a theatre and reopened it as a live theatre. Thankfully Gala who owned it hadn’t ripped out the original fittings, so a sympathetic restoration meant that it could revert back to its original use as a live theatre. When it was a cinema it was owned by J B Milne the Dundee cinema owner from 1947 until the early fifties, when ownership reverted back to sir AB King, who had owned it prior to jbm taking it over it then became a Caledonian Associated Cinema, until bingo took over in the sixties when films were discontinued.