The playhouse in Ayr, the iconic building that has housed Mecca Bingo for the last two decades, is to be sold off at auction on Wednesday 16th June.
However, the good news is that for Bingo fans, it is business as usual as despite the auction of the beautiful old building housing Mecca Bingo, there will be no impact on Mecca Bingo.
BingoDaily contacted Mecca Bingo for clarification of events. A spokesperson for Mecca, owner and operator of one of the UK’s best bingo sites, told BingoDaily:
“Our biggest priority is always to give our Mecca customers in Ayr a fantastic bingo experience and will be open for business as usual in our venue, regardless of the auction process. We are a tenant with a long-standing lease and we are pleased to confirm that the auction process will not impact on the ability of our brilliant team to offer outstanding service to our loyal bingo customers and our role in the local community.”
A Building With History
The Playhouse in Ayr has a guide price of £375,000 and is one of the few surviving buildings by architect John Fairweather.
The building was originally built in 1911 as the Boswell Park Roller Skating Rink. Just three years later in 1914, it was converted by George Green into a 2,000 seat Boswell Park Pavilion Cinema. This was then demolished after World War I and a new cinema, named the Playhouse, was built for George Green in 1923 by John Fairweather with a seating capacity of 1,700. Disaster struck and a fire ravished the building.
John Fairweather then designed The Ayr Playhouse in 1931 which stands to this day. It opened on July 8, 1931 and with 3,104 seats was the third-largest cinema to be built in Scotland. The only other cinema of this scale to survive in Scotland is Fairweather’s Edinburgh Playhouse.
The Category B heritable leisure investment is now occupied by Mecca Bingo ltd on an extended lease until 2026. At this stage, there is no discussion of what will happen beyond 2026. Let’s just enjoy the bingo in one of the most beautiful settings in the UK.
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