Listen to this article:The Buzz Bingo club on Castle Gates in Shrewsbury has officially closed, marking the end of an era for a building that has been a focal point of the local community for generations. Players enjoyed their final session at the club on 31 January after the building was sold to a developer.
The site originally opened as a cinema in 1934 before becoming a bingo hall in 1973. It had operated as part of the Buzz Bingo brand since 2018, and welcomed thousands of customers each year. The Shrewsbury bingo club closure brings to an end more than five decades of play within the iconic building.
Before it became a bingo club, the building was part of Shrewsbury’s cultural landscape as a Granada cinema. Over time, as audience numbers fell, it transformed into a bingo hall while retaining much of its distinctive façade and historic character.
In the year prior to its closure, Buzz Bingo reported that the Shrewsbury club welcomed around 2,400 individual players who together made more than 11,000 visits. These are impressive figures, which show that the club played an important role for many in the community right up until the day it closed.
In the past, Buzz Bingo has described the club as a social hub that brought generations together and supported local jobs. Regional manager Mike Ellis said:
“We’re incredibly proud of our Buzz Bingo Shrewsbury community and our colleagues, and we understand how upsetting this news will be. This closure is not a reflection of the people who made the club so special. We’d like to thank all Shrewsbury customers for their loyalty, support, and the many memories shared in this remarkable venue.”
The company also said that consultations were underway to try to redeploy affected staff to other Buzz Bingo clubs where possible.
The closure of the bingo club came after an offer for the building from a developer was accepted. While there has been no public confirmation on what the building will be used for, it has been talked about in Shrewsbury town-centre regeneration discussions for many years.
A plan published in 2021, known as The Big Town Plan, identified the former cinema and bingo hall as a building with potential for redevelopment. The document suggested that the property “deserves to be restored to its former glory, with a more suitable occupant to secure its vibrant future”.
The building’s future has been a sensitive topic locally. In 2021, more than 500 people signed a petition calling for the former Granada Theatre to be preserved and used for performances rather than converted into flats. Campaigners pointed out its architectural value and the lack of performance spaces in the town.
Richard Gray from the Cinema Theatre Association once described the design as “fantasy” in reference to its grand classical façade and Italian Renaissance-inspired interior features. He also voiced strong opposition to plans to convert it into flats.
Shropshire Council has said in the past that any residential proposals relate to the wider Castle Quarter site rather than the cinema building itself. That consultation with residents is a central part of the planning process.
At present, there do not seem to be any plans to open another bingo venue in Shrewsbury. The closest Buzz Bingo venues are at Ashmore Park in Wolverhampton and in Stafford, and there are also several Mecca Bingo clubs in the Wolverhampton area. However, none of these is particularly close, so hopefully, for the affected by the Shrewsbury bingo club closure players in the area, a new club will be opened in the not-too-distant future.
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