It never rains, but it pours.
News has emerged of YET ANOTHER bingo hall to be closed. Just days after Mecca Bingo confirmed the closure of the Mecca Chester venue, the Rank Group-owned UK bingo operator confirmed the closure of Mecca Bingo Hull Cecil.
The Mecca Bingo Hull Cecil venue on Anlaby Road will close its doors permanently on Sunday, February 26th.
After starting life as The Theatre De-Luxe in 1911, the theatre was rebuilt in 1925 and renamed the Cecil Theatre. Destroyed by German bombers in the Second World War, the theatre was rebuilt as a cinema in 1955. The building was split into a two-screen cinema and bingo hall in 1971. After having numerous owners cinema part was replaced by a snooker hall in 1997. The snooker hall closed years later, leaving the Mecca Bingo hall the only operating part of the building.
Now this is what you call a cinema foyer…
The Cecil Cinema was built in 1955 to replace the original (Theatre de Luxe) on the opposite corner which was destroyed during an air raid over the city on 8th May 1941.#Mecca bingo occupies the building today.#Cecil#Hull pic.twitter.com/abj5XG1uew
— tv heaven (@TellyheVen) June 27, 2022
More than Half a Century of Bingo at ‘The Cecil’ to End
Now, just over half a century since the bingo numbers were first called in the uniquely named building, the bingo numbers will be called for a final time in just a few short weeks.
John Dyson, operations director for Mecca Bingo, one of the UK’s largest bingo and slots operators, said of the Mecca Bingo Hunll Cecil closure:
“Proposals to close our club on Anlaby Road are being discussed. We have begun consultation with our team and will be making an announcement once those conversations are complete.”
According to local reports, employees of the popular bingo hall were informed of the impending closure on Thursday night. All of the staff of the Mecca Bingo Hull Cecil are apparently being made redundant. Mecca Bingo staff are understood to be “devastated” by the closure.
Currently running a 50% promotion, the Mecca Bingo venue, at the heart of the Hull community, is the latest victim of the cost of living crisis, the slump in Rank profits, and falling admissions.
Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, Rank Group (LON: RNK), who also owns the Grosvenor Casino brand, has approximately halved the number of Mecca Bingo retail venues in the UK. This new wave of closures comes having just celebrated 60 years of bingo in the UK. Here’s hoping there are enough Mecca Bingo branches left open to celebrate another six years, let alone another 60 years.
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