Gala Bingo Club

Social club, formerly the Palace Theatre. The building dates from 1903, designed by Wylson and Long, but incorporates fabric from an earlier theatre of 1886.

The complex consists of several interconnected halls constructed in rubble or brickwork with slate, tile, or asbestos cement roofing. The earliest section lies to the south, immediately adjacent to Cannon Cinema, with the building extending northwards in two smaller brick units. A narrow three-storey pavilion with a high pyramidal roof faces Saw Close, where the foyer unit is constructed in ashlar or rubble, mostly painted, with a slate roof. The largest gallery level is enclosed by surrounding buildings.

The handsome music hall front facing Saw Close survives intact. The entrance features an arcaded ground floor with three pairs of glazed doors with transoms and fanlights in triple arcade, set above an entablature with a panelled frieze carried by channelled pilasters. The upper storeys are framed and recessed, flanked by giant pilasters fluted to their upper sections and topped with composite-like capitals. These carry the main entablature with deep, closely-set brackets in the frieze returned at each side, and a blocking course with tall dies at each end crowned by pyramidal finials. Pilaster bases extend across a balcony as open balustrades with dies. At the top of the front is a wide flat segmental arch with a scroll keystone, above a recessed balcony. A central louvred ventilator is flanked by panels, over three narrow paired casements with deep transom lights framed by fluted pilasters with scrolled capitals and swags above. The entablature features a dentil cornice. The steep pyramidal roof has lead hips and carries a lofty flagstaff (the ball finial formerly recorded is no longer in place). Sections visible from Bridewell Lane show early rubble walling capped by an ashlar parapet with evidence of former window openings, a broad ridge roof with tiles and ridge ventilators, with later sections in brick.

The interior auditorium was remodelled in the 1930s when a straight-fronted balcony was inserted. Some Art Deco decoration survives on doors and roof members from this period, though the space is now largely plain. All seating has been replaced with tables and chairs. The stage and boxes were removed in the 1950s when the building was converted to a dance hall. In 1969 the saloon bar was converted to pub use as the auditorium became a bingo hall.

The building originally opened as the Pavilion Music Hall in 1886, becoming the Lyric in 1895 before reconstruction as the Palace Theatre, a name it retained until 1956. It then became the Regency Ballroom, before changing to pub and cinema use in 1969. It entered use as a Zetters bingo club in 1980 and became a Gala bingo club in 1986.