Newark Pery’s Bingo (Formerly Riva Bingo) – Castle Gate Leisure Centre

Newark’s Pery’s Bingo occupied the second floor of the Castle Gate Leisure Centre, a modern mixed leisure development rather than an old cinema conversion, but the operation’s history runs back well before the Pery’s name arrived. The club started life as Riva Bingo Newark, part of a genuine estate of independent halls that reached 13 clubs across the country before being acquired by Hermes Private Equity in April 2006, with Newark’s licensing records still showing Riva Bingo as late as 2012. At some point around then, ownership passed to Bingo Clubs UK Limited, incorporated in October 2011, who began operating the venue under the name Pery’s Bingo with a licence dating from September 2012, run by the O’Byrne family as a small independent operation rather than a national chain.

By its final years the club offered a fairly traditional package of paper and electronic bingo, a gaming arcade, bar and food, though its schedule had thinned to just Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday sessions, a telling sign of how far retail bingo had contracted. Pery’s closed for good on Sunday 26 May 2024, though the regulatory licence wasn’t formally surrendered until July 2025, and Bingo Clubs UK Limited was eventually dissolved in January 2026. The building itself hasn’t been abandoned though. A planning application to convert the former bingo hall and second-floor lobby into a 42-bedroom hotel was approved in January 2026, part of a much wider redevelopment of the Castle Gate Leisure Centre that will also see other floors converted into 24 residential apartments. So while the bingo operation and its Riva to Pery’s lineage has now ended for good, the building is set for a genuine new life rather than demolition or dereliction.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Mansfield Strand Bingo – Church Street
• Mansfield Gala Bingo – Albert Street
• Grantham Buzz Bingo – Venture Way
• Grantham Granada Bingo – St. Peter’s Hill
• Nottingham Gala Bingo – St. Anns Well Road
• Nottingham Adelphi Bingo & Social Club – Carey Road
• Nottingham Gala Bingo – Radford Boulevard
• Nottingham Sun Valley Bingo And Social Club – Green Lane
• Newark Regal Cinema – Forest Road

Here are some photos of the Newark Pery’s Bingo on Castle Gate Leisure Centre from Twitter and Facebook, to give you a flavour of the club, its customers and decoration. The photographers are unknown, but if one of these is yours let us know and we’ll add a credit.

Also, if you have photos to add here, please contact us here to share them.