Players Sad To See Hoxton Mecca Close
Players this week have spoken of their sadness at the news that the Mecca Bingo club on Hackney Road, Shoreditch, London is to close for redevelopment. The former cinema has been a bingo hall for more than half a century but is about to close its doors for good after suffering financial losses for a while now.
Regulars at the club have spoken out to say how sad they are at the closure of the club, in what has been a devastating decade for the land bingo industry. The club will now join the ranks of many a closed bingo hall, relegated to history forever.
In recent times land bingo has seen a bit of a revival, especially with the reduction of the gaming duty but it hasn’t been enough to save the club, which will be closing its doors next month. Players have accused the council of ‘gentrification of the area’ as more upmarket pubs and restaurants move in and they say that the hall is one of the few places left where older residents can get together in a non-drinking environment.
Mecca Bingo say they don’t take hall closures lightly and have really been left with no choice but to close the club on June 17th 2015. It’s not yet known what the building will eventually be used for, but we can confirm that it won’t be in the hands of Mecca any more.
The venue was opened in 1938 and was originally an Odeon cinema, seating almost 2,000 people. In 1961 as television took over, the doors of the cinema closed and the venue became a Top Rank Club, to then be transformed into a bingo hall. Of course as online and mobile bingo have taken over for the bingo hall in the same way that TV took over from the cinemas, we’re seeing a change in trends again. Many old cinemas were turned into bingo halls in the 1960s, but as a little bit of trivia, the Hoxton hall’s claim to fame is that it was the first purpose built cinema to ever be converted!
