Date of closure: 23 June 2024
Address (for reference only):
Mecca Bingo (Lost Halls)
707-725 Lordship Lane
Wood Green
London
N22 5JY
Wood Green’s Mecca wasn’t a converted cinema, its history is a good deal quirkier than that. The site at 707–725 Lordship Lane started life as a bus depot, used by the City Bus Company from the 1920s and later Eastern National, serving as the starting point for routes to Southend and Westcliff. It even appeared as a filming location for the 1970s sitcom On the Buses. After the bus operation ended in the early 1980s, the site became a Do-it-All DIY store before being converted into a Mecca Bingo club during the 1990s, a chain of uses about as far from an old picture palace as it’s possible to get.
The club grew into a substantial North London venue accommodating close to 1,000 people, offering traditional and electronic bingo, a social lounge, cook-to-order food, around 87 gaming machines and its own car park, just minutes from Wood Green Underground. Mecca clearly still believed in the site as late as 2012, giving it a £600,000 refurbishment. It became more than just a gambling venue for its regulars too, with Haringey Council noting during planning discussions that it offered discounted hot food and helped prevent social isolation among older residents. The club closed permanently around 23 June 2024, earlier than its lease had suggested, as part of a much larger mixed-use redevelopment of the site bringing student accommodation, affordable housing, townhouses and new public space. It’s a good reminder that not every lost bingo hall needs a grand cinema history to matter. Wood Green mattered simply because, for three decades, it quietly became part of its neighbourhood.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
- Enfield Premier Bingo – Hertford Road
- London – Gala Bingo Waltham Cross – High Street
- London – Mecca Bingo Chadwell Heath – High Road
- London – Gala Bingo East Ham – Barking Road
- Waltham Cross Mecca Bingo – High Street
- London – Jasmine Bingo King’s Cross – Caledonian Road
- London – Mecca Bingo Leyton – Hoe Street
- London – Gala Bingo Harrow – Station Road
I was playing in slot that time and playing bingo as well with bingo machine. And no one was playing in slot that time so no noise at that time – I’m waiting for one number for full house worth of 120 pounds when my waiting number called I shout bingo very loud but he said he can’t hear me. I spoke to the manager and she said its my fault because of noises in the slot. And she said its my responsibility to go the lounge not to play in the slot station but my voice is loud and she can’t accept my reason. I’m not happy. She listen to her staff its ok for me if only worth 10 pounds I lost but that is 120 pounds. I’m really really upset with that manager I’m not happy with her decision. I want to have my 120 back because it’s really unfair for me. Even he checked on the cctv what is true. Hopefully this my complain is someone make action because I’m really really upset.
Complain to head office