Preston City Club 3000 Bingo – Tithebarn Street

Preston’s Tithebarn Street club sits on a site with a genuinely layered history, though the present building itself was purpose-built for bingo. Before the bingo hall, the plot was home to the Prince’s Theatre and Opera House, which became a full-time cinema by 1934, closed in October 1959 with around 780 seats, and was eventually demolished in 1964. The site was subsequently redeveloped as St John’s Shopping Centre, and a brand-new bingo club opened there in 1971 as Buckingham Bingo, founded by Panico Panayi as the very first club in what would grow into a nine-strong chain. A Preston City Council planning document confirms the premises were still trading as Buckingham Bingo as late as 2006.

Buckingham was sold to Alchemy in 2006, and its clubs were later split between Club 3000 and Castle Leisure in 2011, with Tithebarn Street becoming part of the Club 3000 estate around that time. For a period the club worked alongside Preston’s other Club 3000 venue on New Hall Lane, with Tithebarn Street hosting afternoon bingo sessions while New Hall Lane ran the evenings, though the latter was found to be substantially more popular. Bingo eventually ended at Tithebarn Street, with no precise final session date established, and the building has since taken on a new life as Riva Showbar, an entertainment and food venue, a name with a nice link back to Club 3000 founder Brian Fraser’s earlier Riva Bingo chain. It’s worth being clear this is a separate, closed premises from Club 3000’s still-operating New Hall Lane club. The story here runs from a demolished Victorian theatre, through half a century of purpose-built bingo, to the venue’s current life as a showbar.

Other Lost Halls In The Area

• Preston Empire Bingo – Church Street
• Preston Gala Bingo – Market Street
• Chorley Buzz Bingo – Market Street
• Blackpool Apollo Bingo – Waterloo Road
• Blackpool Mecca Bingo – Church Street
• Blackpool Empire Bingo – Hawes Side Lane
• Accrington Empire Bingo – Blackburn Road

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