Mecca Bingo Club

A former Odeon cinema on Skinner Street in Wolverhampton, which opened in September 1937 and later became a bingo club from June 1983 onwards. Designed by architect Arthur J Price of Harry Weedon and Partners for Oscar Deutsch and the Odeon group of companies.

The building is constructed of brick and faience with a double-height auditorium featuring a balcony and small stage, fronted by a foyer and staircase.

The asymmetrical façade to Skinner Street is executed in the Moderne style. A cream faience-clad tower rises on the left, enlivened by vermilion faience protruding mouldings. A black faience-clad oversailing fin projects forward from the façade, serving as a distinctive landmark. Above the entrance, cream faience cladding is largely unrelieved except for two horizontal slit windows halfway up and further vermilion faience projecting mouldings at the top. The lower section to the right features five double-height windows outlined in black and green faience stripes and framed by cream faience. This composition is surrounded by unrelieved brick, except for five horizontal slit windows positioned to line up with the double-height windows, which also extends over to the tower. Glazing bars appear in the upper level of the double-height windows only. Stock brick return walls complete the structure.

The interior retains considerable original detail. The outer lobby was originally double-height with a high coved ceiling, though the upper part may now be concealed above a later false ceiling. A staircase with original chromium handrails ascends to the balcony on the left. Entrances to the right lead through to an inner lobby, which retains original crenellated frieze mouldings and an Odeon skirting. Curving draught entrance lobbies lead to the auditorium.

The large double-height auditorium is dominated by four fibrous plaster lighting coves stepping down to the proscenium and terminating in bulbous-fronted balconettes. Each cove is decorated with Art Deco mouldings, currently accentuated by a garish colour scheme. A further similar cove runs across the width of the balcony soffit. Plaster combing appears in the cove nearest the proscenium and on the balcony soffit. The balcony front features a vertical ridged surface. A simple rectangular lighting cove runs across the ceiling over the balcony, with a central float for lighting or ventilation and a horizontal fibrous plaster ventilation grille. Double-width central vomitory entrance ports and Odeon emergency doors survive in the balcony rear wall.

The upper foyer retains original Odeon doors and triple-stage skirting. The floor of the upper foyer does not meet the Skinner Street façade wall but instead terminates in a balustrade positioned forward of the wall, where it was originally possible to look down to the ground floor lobby.

This building is recommended for Grade II listing as an almost complete example of the Odeon style. The Odeons were the style-leaders in cinema design of their era. The façade represents a particularly successful essay in streamlined modernism, having undergone no drastic subsequent alterations. The tower and fin feature effectively advertises the cinema as a landmark. The design successfully addresses the challenging problem of composing a façade requiring few windows, while respecting the strict functional demands that dictated the positioning of those that were necessary.