Comments on: So Long, Hackney Rd Bingo Hall

By: Rosemary McDonald

Rosemary McDonald — Sat, 23 Aug 2025 19:49:31 +0000

I worked at the Top Rank Bingo hall in 1962. I remember one Christmas singing on the stage [ before they dismantled it ] . Happy memories .

By: Rosemary McDonald

Rosemary McDonald — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 21:29:41 +0000

I worked at the Top Rank Bingo hall in 1962, I have happy memories of my employment.

By: sajid

sajid — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 02:14:08 +0000

So sad to hear the old bingo hall has been demolished..
I remember vividly walking past that place on my with parents to my aunts home in nearby turin st e2 aswell as on my way to Brick Lane..
so many memories slowly being erased and as usual the locals dont get anything…

By: Peter Wade

Peter Wade — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:39:58 +0000

Hackney Council should be ashamed, we are losing so many iconic buildings in and around the east end, I remember going to this odeon in the early sixties to see Cliff Richards in Summer Holiday with my sister, later in life going to play bingo there with my Mum & Dad.

By: John Munday

John Munday — Thu, 04 Jan 2018 12:17:48 +0000

Endorsing everybody’s reminiscences of the Saturday morning pictures, all together now…..

We come along on Saturday mornings
Greeting everybody with a smile
We come along on Saturday mornings
Knowing it’s well worth while.

Then running back home with your mac done up at the collar pretending to be somebody from the big screen.

Who would have though the old area would later become trendy (but still scruffy) and a world famous film star would be living just a stone’s throw from the Odeon!

By: Martin Palmer

Martin Palmer — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 21:30:41 +0000

I, too, recall Saturday morning pictures at the Odeon, with all us kids ‘hooraying’ and ‘booing’ at the good guys and bad guys.

And in an earlier time, my grandfather would go to the Odeon once a week in his retirement years. Having spent his working life as a clown, making people smile and laugh, he became a crusty old curmudgeon in retirement. The family story goes that shortly before the end of each show he attended he would begin to complain loudly and persistently, so the staff would return his money. And the next week, he would do it all over again. In his final few years, he was bedridden and could not do the short walk from Nichols Square to the Odeon. Yet, when he finally died, the Odeon staff, having not seen him for those years, sent a large wreath to his funeral. What do you know, they must have loved him after all.

By: Ian Silverton

Ian Silverton — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:28:58 +0000

Not main picture,fourth one down,it’s me for sure,about 20 yrs old,

By: Ian Silverton

Ian Silverton — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 19:13:18 +0000

Looks like me coming out of the phone box,main picture? Who knows,went there long before it went BINGO, many happy times spent 3 rows from the back, only joking,brings back special times of my youth, Jersey Based Hackney Company, spells East End Boys Done Good,IMHO

By: Jill Wilson

Jill Wilson — Wed, 03 Jan 2018 08:25:33 +0000

That makes me so cross – especially as what they are putting in it’s place is yet another mediocre block of flats….grrrrrrr! Something really imaginative could have been done with the building. I’m sure that in years to come people will look back on our time with disbelief that so many classic buildings are being destroyed to be replaced by modern c**p (a bit like we are horrified by how many great Victorian buildings were knocked down in the Sixties and Seventies!)

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 02 Jan 2018 20:42:21 +0000

What a wonderful set of photographs. It is so sad this building could not have been saved. There are so many opportunities for these historic buildings to be reused. There are cinema companies around that will reopen them, they can become mixed entertainment venues (theatre, cinema, music). Although I hate to say it, it would have been better as a Wetherspoons than being knocked down to be replaced by that modern monstrosity.