Memories of cinema and bingo hall as signage removed

"It was great fun in there. Back in them days there was no luxury," says Tom Ryder as the signage of a 1930s art-deco cinema and bingo hall in Loughborough is taken down.

He is one of the avid cinema-goers and bingo players who shared their memories of the Beacon Bingo building in Baxter Gate.

The former cinema and bingo hall has since been bought and converted into a church, with the Beacon Bingo signage coming off on 23 December last year.

Mr Ryder, 72, from the town, used to visit the building when it was a cinema prior to the bingo hall.

The building was a cinema when it was first built in 1936, then from the mid-1970s it was a bingo hall before it permanently closed in March 2021.

Mr Ryder remembers going to the cinema with other children from local schools on Saturdays.

"They [cinema staff] used to walk round with a torch checking what you were up to if you sat in the back rows," he said.

Mr Ryder said he would often open the back doors to the cinema to let his friends in without them having to pay.

Paul Meyerstein, 64, from Shepshed, remembers going to see Battle of Britain at the cinema.

"When the film had finished, we could sit there and watch it again. It is just what it was then," he said.

Brenda Hetterley, 69, from Sileby, was a member of the Beacon Bingo for 20 years.

"It was lovely. You used to meet people there from other villages, it was a good social place to be," she said.

At the heart of the building, there is an auditorium that can hold nearly 1,700 people.

Some of the art-deco features that remain from the period include golden arches that sit on either side of the stage as well as large gold-painted air vents.

Upstairs, much of the old projector room remains. Multiple hatches can be pushed up and down to reveal the main auditorium.

While the lighting rig with the levers also sits in their original place, some of the doors to the old tape rooms also still have "rewind: no smoking" written on them.

Senior pastor Roy Todd said without the intervention of the church, an "important part of the town's history" would have been lost.

The leaking roof was replaced, "extensive" and disturbed asbestos tiles in the main hall had to be removed, while the building was rewired.

Mr Todd said: "I think local people are happy even if they are not church-going folks, they are happy that it is being used.

"This, however, is only the beginning. There is still much work to be done. The restoration is a long-term, phased project that will take the best part of 10 years to complete."

Alongside it being a church, the building also serves the community, with a weekly soup kitchen, as a youth club centre, and a mum-and-babies stay-and-play group.

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