GALA BINGO CLUB

GALA BINGO CLUB, HIGH STREET

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1385098
Date first listed:: 05-Oct-2000
List Entry Name:: GALA BINGO CLUB
Statutory Address:: GALA BINGO CLUB, HIGH STREET

User submitted image — Uploaded by Nigel Cox This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Images of England Project

To view this image please use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, or Edge.

Archive image, may not represent current condition of site.

Date:: 2007-09-25
Reference:: IOE01/16980/19
Rights:: © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1385098
Date first listed:: 05-Oct-2000
List Entry Name:: GALA BINGO CLUB
Statutory Address 1:: GALA BINGO CLUB, HIGH STREET

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: GALA BINGO CLUB, HIGH STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Greater London Authority
District:: Ealing (London Borough)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: TQ 20494 80088

Details

ACTON

TQ28SW HIGH STREET 962/3/10051 Acton 05-OCT-00 (North side) Gala Bingo Club

II

Also Known As: Dominion Cinema, HIGH STREET, Acton

Former cinema, built as the Dominion in 1936-7 for Albert Bacal and N. Lee. Architect: Frank Ernest Bromige LRIBA (1902-1979). Facade in brown facing brick and render. Left return wall entirely in brick. A chimney rises beyond the low stage house. Roof not seen on the foyer block but there is a pitched roof over the auditorium. Double-height auditorium with balcony, entered via double-height foyer with paired staircases.

EXTERIOR: Tall, symmetrical, Moderne facade. In the centre, three sets of paired entrance doors, flanked by splay walls, the first part rendered. In the centre, the first and second floors break forward as a cantilevered structure to form a large area of glazing, at the same time creating a canopy over the entrance. Twin vertical members rise from this canopy to the third floor level, then curve inwards as fins to support an oversized cornice. The vertical members are filled with continuous glazing, which, at first floor level only, bends around on either side to meet the brick. These glazed areas have broad cornices above which are balconies with Art Deco metal balustrades. All glazing with multiple transoms and margin mullions. French doors give on to these balconies either side. At the top is a deep parapet which formerly carried the name of the cinema. This and the top of the fins are masked by a recent metal fascia. The tall slender windows on the flanking stair towers have also been covered. Left return wall entirely in brick; the pilasters (which express the steel-frame structure) having stepped summits. Two double-doors together with sundry small windows for offices and lavatories, at the entrance end. The far end has more exit doors and service accommodation windows together with a large rectangular louvered ventilation aperture.

INTERIOR: Foyer, with stairs to a landing over the entrance and then ascending to the balcony foyer. Moderne balustrades with chromium handrails. Ceiling with streamlined lighting coves. Chromium bowl torchere and similar fitment in the ceiling. Broad double-height streamlined auditorium with coves reaching down to the proscenium, over which there is a long horizontal grill. Large balcony with curved front and vomitory entrance. Narrow column pilasters divide the side walls into bays, the latter treated with banding.

ANALYSIS: A good example of a 1930s super-cinema, designed by one of the most interesting architects specialising in the genre at the time. The cantilevered facade and associated space-saving stair plan in the foyer (reminiscent of the arrangement in the Westminster Central Hall) must be unique in cinema design. The cinema closed as the Granada in 1972, to become a bingo club.

SOURCES: David Atwell, Cathedrals of the Movies, The Architectural Press, London 1986, pages 101 and 184. Bridget Cherry and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England - London 3: North West, Penguin Books, London 1991, page 161. Richard Gray, Cinemas in Britain, Lund Humphries, London 1996, pages 114 and 139. Allen Eyles, The Granada Theatres, Cinema Theatre Association, London 1998, pages 132 and 248.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 485560
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Atwell, D, Cathedral of the Movies: A History of British Cinemas and their Audiences, (1980), 101, 184
Eyles, A, The Granada Theatres, (1998), 132, 248
Gray, R, Cinemas in Britain: One Hundred Years of Cinema Architecture, (1996), 114, 139
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: London 3 North West, (1991), 161

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.