Date of closure: TBC
Address (for reference only):
Gala Bingo (Lost Halls)
Station Road
Shirehampton
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 Gala Bingo Shirehampton. We do know that the club did reside in what used to be the Savoy Cinema prior to the venue changing its usage to bingo. The Savoy (known locally as the ‘Cabbage’), opened in 1933, and had seating for 900, 700 in the stalls, and 200 above. The cinema closed in 1962, and was converted into a bingo hall. We do know that the premises did actually revert back to cinema usage at some time under Rank Ownership. Sadly, the building was demolished in 2003, and is now either the location of a block of flats, or a supermarket.
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 (February 2012)
Update
Is now replaced by apartments – see http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-50922608.html. Pity as it seemed to have retained many internal original features.
By Alan (May 2015)
We don’t know too much about this now closed bingo hall, except that it used to be a cinema, the ‘Savoy’. The photos below have been kindly provided by cinema enthusiast Alan Hodson, and show the club in it’s days as a bingo hall, although we are guessing that the cinema enthusiasts might have been let in to look around the club after its closure.
A ‘smallish’ club, it’s conversion from cinema to bingo doesn’t have appeared to have taken much of a toll on original features. Having said that, as the cinema opened in the thirties we wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a ‘bit more’ to the decor, as the interior shown below is relatively plain in comparison to some that we have seen. The relief work in the last two pictures is quite interesting, and we’re left wondering exactly what was on the ceiling – unfortunately we may never find out, as sadly, the premises have been demolished.
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.
