Date of closure: 25th Jan 2025
Address (for reference only):
Buzz Bingo (Lost Halls)
The Plaza
Rowlands Road
Worthing
BN11 3JS
Worthing’s club stands apart from most Buzz sites because it occupied a genuine 1930s cinema, rather than a purpose-built bingo hall. The Plaza opened on 14 December 1933, designed by Harry Weston, with a lavish Art Deco Mollo & Egan interior, a full stage, a Compton organ and around 2,000 seats across stalls and circle. After closing as a cinema in December 1968, the building was almost immediately converted for bingo, running through a succession of names — Star, Granada, Lion and Gala — before becoming Buzz Bingo in June 2018. During the Granada years a false ceiling was installed across the auditorium, effectively sealing off the upper part of the old cinema, including surviving decorative plasterwork and original seating, from the bingo hall below.
The Buzz era lasted only around six and a half years, and despite a refurbishment in 2024, the club closed for good on 25 January 2025. The closure followed the site’s acquisition by developer Cayuga Developments, which considered the building to be in poor condition and lodged a planning application to demolish it in favour of a mixed-use scheme of flats, houses and commercial units. The building’s fate therefore remains genuinely uncertain: it may yet be demolished, though there has been some discussion of retaining elements of its historic frontage. Worthing is a rare case among Buzz closures where a real fragment of Art Deco cinema history survived hidden above a bingo hall for over half a century, only for its future to now hang in the balance.
Other Lost Halls In The Area
Here are some photos of the Worthing Buzz Bingo on Rowlands Road 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.
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When I go to the Worthing Gala Bingo club you get smiles all the time. The people there are very nice the club is clean all the time.
I have been going to this club on and off for years. The atmosphere over the years has changed, with the no smoking policy now I find it much quieter. I am a non smoker and enjoy the clean air in the club now. The staff are very polite and always friendly no matter who you talk to. I enjoy the old fashioned pen and paper bingo, they do have the machines, people do use them, to me that is not like playing bingo as its all automated. There is food available, years ago they used to do macaroni cheese, lovely!! Now it’s more like Weatherspoons where you place your order and they bring it to your table. The choice of food is simple I guess for quickness? I wish there were more healthy options… Like salad on the menu! I will continue to go back there as I like to play bingo!
I hadn’t played there for about three years, and the second game I played I won the house prize. I haven’t won again since (even on a free night)! It’s a good club, staff are polite and friendly and I like the food from the diner.
I went there tonight with my mum and sister, and I’m not happy about the service and the man who was calling out the numbers. We waited 45 mins for our food, they had told us to sit down and they would bring it over when we ordered the food the food we wanted was on show ready to be served up. So we don’t really know why we ended up waiting so long. The man calling the numbers was extremely rude to my family and another couple of girls in the hall saying he couldn’t hear him self think when we was ordering food, and to these other women telling them to stop laughing and keep it together because he was talking! Very rude and I don’t think I’ll go again.
A group of us visit the hall every Wednesday night and last week the emergency doors were opened up because as we believe one of the staff members suffers from overheating, but that meant a number of the customers had to sit in a draft. Last summer when it was really hot and we asked for the doors to be opened, we were told that they were only emergency exits and could not be opened.
I worked here a few years ago. I started as a steward and ended up calling as well. All the staff were popular with visiting members and vice versa. Food was excellent, and manager was incredibly good with his staff. I have been hooked on bingo ever since. Moved to mansfield and visit gala club there regularly. Never win but still enjoy the experience. I also run the bingo sessions at my local workers club and get the same buzz even as the clubs president. Can’t get enough of the fun. Pity smoking ban and cheap supermarket booze has destroyed so many places, clubs, pubs, and jobs that went with them. Everyone should support these places or they will be gone forever.