Listen to this article:After 64 years of operation, Mecca Bingo Kingstanding has closed, bringing an end to a long chapter for one of Birmingham’s best-known bingo venues.
The club on Kingstanding Circle held its final session on Sunday, 7 June. It had been operating from the former Odeon cinema building since 1962, and was a regular meeting place for local players for decades. The closure was first proposed in May, with Mecca Bingo saying that the venue had become increasingly difficult to keep open.
A spokesperson for Rank Group said:
“It is with a heavy heart that we are proposing the closure of our Kingstanding club. The club has not been profitable for some time and requires considerable repairs and maintenance, which make it challenging for the venue to remain in operation. Therefore, we are currently proposing that Sunday, June 7, will be Mecca Kingstanding’s final day of trading.”
The club has now closed, and the Mecca Bingo website has been updated to confirm the news.
The Kingstanding club had a large number of long-standing regulars, with some players visiting for decades. For many, visiting the club had become part of their weekly routine.
One regular, who had been going to the club for 50 years, said that the venue was a place to meet friends and enjoy a laugh, and said that any win was simply an extra bonus.
Another former caller and regular player described the club as being “like a family”. They explained that staff and players had built friendships over the years that continue to exist outside the bingo sessions. The closure means those players will now need to find another venue, with Mecca Bingo Acocks Green remaining the operator’s only club in Birmingham.
The building itself has a long and interesting history. It originally opened as the Odeon cinema in July 1935 and was designed by J Cecil Clavering and Robert Bullivant of Harry Weedon and Partners for the Odeon group. The Grade II listed building is one of the best-known examples of Art Deco cinema design in Birmingham, with its distinctive cream and black frontage and the three tall fins above the entrance.
The cinema closed in December 1962, before reopening as a Top Rank Bingo Club. It later became Mecca Bingo, giving the building a second life as a bingo venue for more than six decades.
Unsurprisingly, given the building’s history, the closure has attracted a great deal of local attention. The building has been part of Kingstanding Circle for more than 90 years and has been used for entertainment throughout that time.
The Grade II listing means that its future will be subject to planning and heritage restrictions, although there has not yet been any confirmation about what will happen to the building next.
The closure leaves the former Odeon empty for the first time in many years, and there is currently no confirmed new use for the site.
Its listed status should offer some protection against major changes or demolition. However, maintaining a large historic building can be expensive, which was one of the reasons Mecca gave for closing the club. The venue’s location on Kingstanding Circle means it is unlikely to go unnoticed. It sits at a prominent junction and remains one of the area’s most recognisable buildings.
There have already been calls for the property to be preserved and brought back into use. Some local people would like to see it return to its cinema roots, while others will simply hope that it does not remain empty for long.
For now, the unavoidably sad news is that Mecca Bingo Kingstanding has closed after 64 years, but hopefully an inspiring new use will be found for the historic building.
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