Grand Bingo and Social Club, Chapel End

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Grand Bingo and Social Club, Chapel End by Stephen McKay as part of the Geograph project.

The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.

There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk

Grand Bingo and Social Club, Chapel End

Image: © Stephen McKay Taken: 2 Nov 2022

Bingo was a hugely popular leisure activity in the second half of the 20th century, generally using converted cinemas that made ideal bingo halls. That has all changed now. Many bingo halls closed down around 2007, blaming the indoor smoking ban but that always seemed a lame excuse to cover for an industry that was fading anyway; bingo is now mostly an on-line activity and bingo halls have become as rare a sight as the suburban cinemas they superseded. This one was the last to survive in Nuneaton, finally succumbing to the inevitable in late 2021. The building itself was auctioned off in February 2022. It started life as the Grand Cinema in 1929 and was converted to a bingo hall in 1961, so it was a bingo hall for almost twice as long as it was a cinema.

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0

Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
52.537028
Longitude
-1.517559