Glasgow Mecca Bingo (Rutherglen) – Main Street

Rutherglen’s Mecca had a particularly satisfying story because the bingo conversion never destroyed the building’s cinema character. It opened as the Vogue Cinema on 29 January 1936, designed by Scottish cinema specialist James McKissack for George Singleton’s Vogue circuit, with the opening ceremony performed by entertainer Harry Lauder himself. It was a substantial 1,750-seat cinema clad in white and cream faience tiles, with Corinthian columns in the foyer and concealed lighting in the auditorium, a good example of 1930s Scottish Art Deco with a slightly more classical flavour than some of McKissack’s other work. Odeon took it over just over a year after opening, in March 1937, before renaming it Odeon in 1946. Rank closed it as a cinema on 12 October 1974, and it became a Top Rank Bingo Club soon after, later becoming Mecca.

What made Rutherglen special was how much survived the transition. Historic Environment Scotland’s listing notes the foyer staircase, Art Deco balustrades, tapered columns, curved auditorium ceiling, proscenium and balcony mouldings all remained intact even while the building was still operating as a bingo hall, leading to it being listed at Category C in 2005 as the last surviving of six cinemas that once stood in the town. While it was open the club offered the usual mix of bingo, electronic bingo, gaming machines, a bar and diner, plus a car park behind the building accessed from Mill Street. The club closed during the first Covid lockdown in March 2020, and Mecca confirmed in September that year it would not reopen, bringing an end to around 46 years of bingo in a building that, unlike so many former Meccas, remained recognisably the 1936 cinema right up until the very end.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Glasgow Caesars Bingo – Sauchiehall Street
• Glasgow County Bingo – Eglinton Street
• Glasgow Fox Bingo – Easterhouse Township Centre
• Glasgow Gala Bingo – Cowglen Road
• Glasgow Mecca Bingo (Rutherglen) – Main Street
• Glasgow Savoy Bingo – Main Street
• Glasgow Centre Bingo And Social Club – Cross Arthurlie Street
• Glasgow Gala Bingo – Woodneuk Rd
• Glasgow Lyceum Bingo – Govan Road