Acton: Gala Bingo Club

Image: © Nigel Cox Taken: 10 Nov 2010

Built as the Dominion Cinema in 1937 and closing as the Granada Cinema in 1972 this is now the Gala Bingo Club on Acton's High Street. It is a Grade II Listed Building by virtue of being a good example of a 1930s super-cinema, its facade, and a unique (to cinemas at least) space saving stairway in the foyer. It was designed by Frank Ernest Bromige LRIBA (1902-1979). The English Heritage Listed Building website describes the exterior as follows:- "Tall, symmetrical, Moderne facade. In the centre, three sets of paired entrance doors, flanked by splay walls, the first part rendered. In the centre, the first and second floors break forward as a cantilevered structure to form a large area of glazing, at the same time creating a canopy over the entrance. Twin vertical members rise from this canopy to the third floor level, then curve inwards as fins to support an oversized cornice. The vertical members are filled with continuous glazing, which, at first floor level only, bends around on either side to meet the brick. These glazed areas have broad cornices above which are balconies with Art Deco metal balustrades. All glazing with multiple transoms and margin mullions. French doors give on to these balconies either side. At the top is a deep parapet which formerly carried the name of the cinema. This and the top of the fins are masked by a recent metal fascia. The tall slender windows on the flanking stair towers have also been covered."

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