Date of closure: 2025 TBC
Address (for reference only):
Independent (Lost Halls)
Alexandra Road
St Austell
PL25 5QL
The Capitol was built for entertainment from day one. It opened on 22 February 1926 in the Mount Charles area of St Austell, with Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush on the screen. It was more than a picture house, with a café, a dance hall for around 200 and a stage about 40 feet deep that hosted musical theatre in the 1950s, including local amateur groups. Capacity is reported as around 800 in one account and 646 in another, so treat either as an estimate. Bingo arrived in 1963 alongside the other attractions, and in 1981 the Capitol stopped showing films and became a full-time bingo hall. By June 2013 it was trading as Capitol Bingo, an independent-style local club rather than one of the national chains, promoting itself as a leading venue for St Austell and Cornwall.
The ending is a little hazy. In January 2023 the bingo premises, a parade of four shops and a 35-space car park were put up for sale with a £2 million guide price, though the sale report didn’t confirm that bingo was finishing. We haven’t found a final session date or a stated reason for the closure. The Gambling Commission now lists the Capitol Bingo trading name as inactive under Needneutral Limited, and by summer 2025 the interior had been gutted and the building reopened as a gym, Muscle Machine. The building survives, but much of its old entertainment-venue character will have gone with the auditorium.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
We don’t currently have any gallery images for this club. If you’d like to share your pictures of the club, please send us an email and we’ll arrange to add them.
Are you still open. My husband and I always played here coming down with grandaugher and would love to play again.
are you still open
It would seem the club has now closed I’m afraid, we need to move it to the Lost Halls section.