Bingo Hall Converted into Church
Bournemouth is a beautiful city with lots of character, plenty of beautiful architecture and much good weather at certain times of the year. It is a favourite destination by many Brits who are looking to enjoy the classic British beaches and seaside experience. However, there is much more to Bournemouth than beaches. It has a fantastic nightlife and lots to do including bingo halls.
One such bingo hall, however, has ceased to exist in its present form and has been re-located elsewhere. The building though, which used to be the Moderne cinema and Gala Bingo hall has now been converted into a church and community club in order to avoid its demolition. Those were the fears when the building was put up for sale. It was thought that a private developer would buy the building and knock it to the ground in order to build flats or student accommodation.
Luckily, the building was bought for a hefty £1million by the Bournemouth Community Church who has transformed it into a place of beauty and God and now welcomes hundreds of people through its doors every month. On top of the £1million spent on its purchase, the community church has spent an additional £1.25million in decorating the place in the Art-Deco style. This style of decoration has gone down like a treat with the 600 congregation that meets at the church every Sunday.
The conversion of this old bingo hall into a church and social events venue means that whenever there aren’t any religious ceremonies going on, the building can be used as a theatre and concert venue. In total there are 1,000 seats available for these events to be enjoyed by local residents. There will be a performance of Alice in Wonderland this March by Direct Theatre and the Bournemouth Philharmonic Orchestra will also perform three times throughout the year and will surely test the building’s acoustics to its full potential. There will also be a film festival held there by Bournemouth University this May and to end the year, the London Community Gospel Choir will be invited to delight the faithful flock and bid farewell to what will hopefully have been a prosperous year.
Everybody is very excited about this conversion. So even though the old Gala Bingo hall has ceased to provide enjoyment to the local community, there will now be a source of entertainment. Gala Bingo will be sorely missed however, and people have already expressed this in various online forums.
Add to favourites
Like on Facebook
Follow on Twitter