Edinburgh Club 3000 Bingo (Formerly Mecca Bingo) – Manderston Street

Leith’s old bingo hall had one of the more architecturally quirky setups of any club on this list, built through a railway arch. The building began life as the Capitol Cinema, opening on 21 September 1928, designed by Edinburgh architects J. M. Johnston and J. A. Ross as a substantial 2,390-seat Art Deco cinema. Its layout was genuinely unusual, with the entrance running through a railway arch on Manderston Street while the main auditorium sat on the other side of the tracks, meaning patrons effectively passed under the railway to reach the seats. It had a two-manual theatre organ and closed as a cinema on 29 July 1961, converting almost immediately into a Top Rank Bingo Club, later becoming Mecca. The organ survived the conversion for a while before being transferred to a church in 1968, but the building itself kept its unusual relationship with the railway arches throughout its bingo years.

In 2019, Mecca sold the building to Club 3000, who leased and operated it for several years before deciding the old cinema structure didn’t suit their long-term modern bingo model. Club 3000 marked the site’s 50th anniversary as a bingo venue in November 2024 before moving operations to a brand new £6 million, 1,350-seat club at Ocean Terminal, which opened in January 2025 with the existing team retained. The old Capitol building wasn’t granted statutory listing, Historic Environment Scotland ruled in 2020 that it didn’t meet the criteria, though it has since been brought within the Leith Walk Conservation Area in recognition of its townscape value. Plans have since emerged to convert the building into student accommodation, retaining the existing structure and even refurbishing the railway arch for cycle parking, giving the old Capitol a shot at a genuine third life rather than demolition.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Edinburgh Carlton Bingo – Gorgie Road
• Edinburgh Gala Bingo – West Granton Road
• Edinburgh Mecca Bingo (Palais) – Fountainbridge Road
• Edinburgh Mecca Bingo – Great Junction Street
• Edinburgh Mecca Bingo – Nicolson Street
• Edinburgh Premier Bingo – Nicolson Street
• Edinburgh Royal George Bingo – Bath Street
• Edinburgh Westerhailes Buzz Bingo – Westside Plaza
• Musselburgh Hayweights Bingo – Bridge Street