Paisley Mecca Bingo – High Street

This one’s a genuinely lovely piece of Paisley entertainment history, and easy to confuse with the current Mecca on Saucel Crescent, which is a separate, still-operating club. This older venue occupied 23 High Street, originally opened in 1912 or early 1913 as the Paisley Picture Theatre, designed by Glasgow architect George Arthur Boswell. In the late 1920s the cinema was substantially rebuilt, with a new auditorium added to the rear while the original auditorium became the entrance and foyer, reopening around 1930 simply as the Picture House. It was a genuinely spectacular interior for its time, complete with a three-manual, ten-rank Hilsdon theatre organ whose console was painted gold and mounted on a lift, used alongside orchestras for years of live accompaniment.

The building became a bingo hall in the 1960s, operating as the Mecca Social Club, before finally closing in the 1980s. The auditorium itself was demolished in the late 1980s to make way for the Paisley Centre shopping mall, built directly behind the original frontage. Remarkably, that frontage survives. The building was Category B listed in 1985, specifically recognising its striking three-storey, five-bay High Street façade with glazed variegated brick, pilasters, decorative frieze, pediments and moulded panels, and it now serves as the entrance to the Paisley Centre. So while the auditorium that once held cinema audiences, live organ recitals and decades of bingo players is long gone, anyone walking into the shopping centre today is still passing through the front of the old Picture House.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Renfrew Regal Bingo & Social Club – Ferry Road
• Paisley Gala Bingo – High Street
• Paisley Gala Bingo – Linwood Road
• Glasgow Caesars Bingo – Sauchiehall Street
• Glasgow County Bingo – Eglinton Street
• Glasgow Fox Bingo – Easterhouse Township Centre
• Glasgow Gala Bingo – Cowglen Road
• Glasgow Savoy Bingo – Main Street
• Glasgow Mecca Bingo (Rutherglen) – Main Street
• Denny Beach Bingo – Glasgow Road
• Glasgow Centre Bingo And Social Club – Cross Arthurlie Street
• Port Glasgow Gala Bingo – Brown Street
• Glasgow Lyceum Bingo – Govan Road
• Glasgow Gala Bingo – Woodneuk Rd