Horsham Mecca Bingo – North Street

At the moment we do not have details of the events that led up to, or any of the circumstances surrounding the closure of the Mecca Bingo Horsham, but we do know a bit about the building’s past. The venue originally opened in 1936 as the ‘Odeon’. Designed by noted cinema architect George Coles, it had seating for 1,258, and was apparently quite a landmark. The interior had elements of Art Deco design, and had dual staircases. Classic Cinemas bought the operation in 1967 and renamed it, before splitting the upstairs into two cinemas in 1972. The stalls came under the control of Mecca Bingo during this period, and Mecca actually took over the cinemas, which was a rare occurrence. We know the cinemas closed in 1976, but we are not sure when bingo was called for the last time. Sadly the building is now demolished.

If you have any more details that may assist us, and you would like to share them with our readers, we would love to hear from you. If you let us know what you know, we will put the details online with your name credited (if you wish, or we can credit the article as anonymous). You will be doing a service to the bingo community and posterity by helping us record details of all Britain’s bingo clubs and halls. Thank you.

By Gareth Whieldon (May 2012)

It is always with sadness that we add photographs of closed bingo halls to our site, but particularly so when they are of a demolition. Many of the UK’s closed clubs were located in old cinemas, and often the buildings are of architectural significance, which means that many of them are protected by listings. Although the old Mecca was in a former cinema, unfortunately it didn’t escape the fate that has fallen upon many of our old buildings, and is now gone forever, only to remembered in old photographs.

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.