Denton Holme, Carlisle

Opera Bingo

—

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

Today: See opening hours
Address: 72 Denton Street, Carlisle CA2 5EN
Phone: 01228 526891

Directions Ring them

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, the same family name over the door for more than a century.

Widely repeated locally, but we haven't found a source for it yet. Know one?

Opening hours

Mon	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Tue	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Wed	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Thu	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Fri	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Sat	11:30–15:45, 17:45–21:30
Sun	11:30–15:45, 17:30–21:30