Round and Round
It’s hard to imagine life before bingo. You might be asking if there was any life before bingo. Certainly home entertainment is a relatively new concept. Music halls took people out of their homes for an evening of fun before films hit the big screen and people flocked to see glamorous movie stars and then with the advent of TV a lot of cinemas hit hard times as people no longer had to leave the comfort of their own homes to be entertained.
After World War Two as more and more homes were able to afford TVs some cinemas introduced Top Bingo Deals as well as films but this did not stand the test of time and a lot of old cinemas were made over to bingo entirely.
The old cinema buildings and theatres were ideal for Bingo halls providing comfortable settings and needing little change for the game that was really gaining momentum. Some of the buildings became dance halls and bowling alleys but the bingo halls proved most successful with the first commercial bingo clubs having long waiting lists for membership and big queues to get through the doors.
Now it seems that the smaller bingo halls are struggling to stay afloat and some are returning to music venues. It seems we really do keep inventing the wheel. Increasingly the successful Bingo Halls are purpose built with modern interiors, excellent facilities and an ever younger audience looking for drinks, food and entertainment as well as bingo and of course now we can have it all with online bingo. Stay in or go out. The choice has never been better.
