Another of the post covid Buzz bingo closures, i had checked this cinema out not long after permanent closure was announced in Summer 2020. Of course at the time it was still well looked after with its alarm box flashing and no sign of a simple way in. Fast forward a year and the situation seems to be quite different. I was surprised when i finally got round to checking it again that i didn't find a metalled up fortress, quite the opposite in fact! After an opportunist tug on the front door it just swang straight open.... Ok then!
Sadly thats about as far as my luck took me initially. You see the door didn't get me into the bingo club it got me into the circle bar area which had been used as a judo club. The doors to get into the bingo club were all sadly locked tight and after a couple of hours wondering how else i could make it happen i was faced with two options....
A few nights later i returned with @dweeb in tow and we made it through to the auditorium. Sadly not the best auditorium even before it had had its bingo treatment and a horrid false ceiling installed. After snapping a couple of quick shots we continued through to the back stage area and it started to get a bit more interesting. The original organ chambers were totally empty, it looked as if they may have been re-purposed as dressing rooms at one point but it was hard to tell. It was possible however to get through under the false stage and see the remains of the organ console lift and see the curved floor and bricked up shutter openings. After pulling a few old posters out the void we carried on up the plenum room and the remains of two 60s managers flats before deciding to try our luck at the projection rooms.
The projection rooms gave us some trouble at first but we did stumble on one of the highlights of the explore. A small section of the rear of the auditorium was hidden behind a false wall and contained a number of hidden gems like GBT branded carpets and a Frank Burkitt shutter pull. Finding our way through to the roof and projection rooms was looking unlikely at this point due to multiple locked doors. We opted to give up and headed down to the foyer to have a quick look if we could get anymore lights on for improved photos. This caused us to stumble on the security office and to our pleasure what looked like every key to the whole place neatly laid out on the table with hand written notes showing roughly what they were for.. I guess we wont be going home quite yet then!
We had a quick poke around the foyer discovering a strange 'bank' area which i cant see ive ever seen in a bingo hall before! Then of course heading back to the roof and fumbling through handfuls of keys to see what we could find. The projection room was fairly stripped but still contained the remains of the two follow spot lamps, a few lighting controls and what not. There was a small rectifier room which had sadly been relived of its glass rectifier bulbs and also a large workshop which contained a nice fuse board with diagram of the old neon sign arrangement. Failing to get into the main roof space despite having the code to the door we finally decided to call it a night and left back the way we came locking up and returning the keys were we found them..
Probably going to be 7/10 for this one. Let down by a lack of decent auditorium or epic projection suite but still a cracking exploring experience with more minor gems to find than most.
Salisbury next then!
Sadly thats about as far as my luck took me initially. You see the door didn't get me into the bingo club it got me into the circle bar area which had been used as a judo club. The doors to get into the bingo club were all sadly locked tight and after a couple of hours wondering how else i could make it happen i was faced with two options....
A few nights later i returned with @dweeb in tow and we made it through to the auditorium. Sadly not the best auditorium even before it had had its bingo treatment and a horrid false ceiling installed. After snapping a couple of quick shots we continued through to the back stage area and it started to get a bit more interesting. The original organ chambers were totally empty, it looked as if they may have been re-purposed as dressing rooms at one point but it was hard to tell. It was possible however to get through under the false stage and see the remains of the organ console lift and see the curved floor and bricked up shutter openings. After pulling a few old posters out the void we carried on up the plenum room and the remains of two 60s managers flats before deciding to try our luck at the projection rooms.
The projection rooms gave us some trouble at first but we did stumble on one of the highlights of the explore. A small section of the rear of the auditorium was hidden behind a false wall and contained a number of hidden gems like GBT branded carpets and a Frank Burkitt shutter pull. Finding our way through to the roof and projection rooms was looking unlikely at this point due to multiple locked doors. We opted to give up and headed down to the foyer to have a quick look if we could get anymore lights on for improved photos. This caused us to stumble on the security office and to our pleasure what looked like every key to the whole place neatly laid out on the table with hand written notes showing roughly what they were for.. I guess we wont be going home quite yet then!
We had a quick poke around the foyer discovering a strange 'bank' area which i cant see ive ever seen in a bingo hall before! Then of course heading back to the roof and fumbling through handfuls of keys to see what we could find. The projection room was fairly stripped but still contained the remains of the two follow spot lamps, a few lighting controls and what not. There was a small rectifier room which had sadly been relived of its glass rectifier bulbs and also a large workshop which contained a nice fuse board with diagram of the old neon sign arrangement. Failing to get into the main roof space despite having the code to the door we finally decided to call it a night and left back the way we came locking up and returning the keys were we found them..
cinematreasures said:
Probably going to be 7/10 for this one. Let down by a lack of decent auditorium or epic projection suite but still a cracking exploring experience with more minor gems to find than most.
Salisbury next then!
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