CarlislePubs

Denton Holme, Carlisle

Opera Bingo

โ€”

Bingo club on Denton Street with a bar, in the old Denton Holme quarter near the Milbourne.

Also known as The Star Hall, The Rex Cinema

History

Opened Bingo since about 1960; the building opened 1912

Built
Opened 3 February 1912 as the Star Hall cinema
Architect
M. Johnstone
Seats
About 550
Renamed
The Rex Cinema, 1938
Bingo
Part-time from about 1960, full-time from 1962

A bingo hall in a cinema, and it has been a bingo hall for longer than it was ever a cinema.

The building opened on 3 February 1912 as the Star Hall, a purpose-built picture house of about 550 seats designed by M. Johnstone, with open roof trusses, painted panels of countryside scenes, a proscenium, a billiards hall attached and a narrow entrance squeezed between houses. It was renamed the Rex in 1938.

Bingo crept in around 1960 and had taken over full-time by 1962, though the trade press was still listing it as a cinema into the seventies. That's about sixty-five years of bingo against forty-eight of film.

The nicest detail is the continuity. The cinema was run by Graves Cinemas Ltd. The bingo club is run by Graves (Cumberland) Ltd โ€” the same family name over the door for more than a century.

Directions Ring them

Where

72 Denton Street, Carlisle CA2 5EN

Opening hours

Monday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Tuesday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Wednesday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Thursday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Friday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Saturday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:45โ€“21:30
Sunday11:30โ€“15:45, 17:30โ€“21:30

Hours are kept by hand and change without warning. Ring ahead if it matters.

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Sources

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