Gala Bingo Hall

Granada Cinema/Gala Bingo Hall
50 Mitcham Road, Tooting, SW17; 020 8672 5717 Open Mon - Sat 10:30am -11pm; Sun noon -11pm. Admission Members only; membership is free to anyone over 18. Transport Tooting Broadway tube.


Chartres Cathedral meets Liberace


Now, alas, a bingo hall, this was the first cinema in the UK to be listed as Grade I - the most rigorous preservation order a building can get. From the outside, the tall, square building doesn't look all that special, give or take a few columns; on the inside, it looks like Chartres Cathedral if it had been designed by Liberace. Opened in 1931, this palace to entertainment was commissioned by Sidney Bernstein, an exiled white Russian who later founded Granada TV, and designed by Fyodor Fyodorovich Kommisarzhevsky, a Russian director and set designer briefly married to actress Peggy Ashcroft.


The heavily gilded foyer is lined with Gothic mirrors and fake leaded windows, punctuated by a pair of sweeping marble staircases. But all this is relatively restrained: the auditorium inspired by its namesake, the Alhambra Palace in Granada - is where Kommisarzhevsky went bananas. Under a coffered ceiling are cathedral porches, heraldic symbols, and glass chandeliers, now partly obscured by the bingo lighting and screens. The decoration intensifies as you approach the stage. All around the auditorium are arches filled with murals of troubadours and wimpled damsels - but underneath all this medieval madness, the bingo fans play on, eyes fixed on the cards. The combination feels like a weird incarnation of a themed Vegas casino deep in South London.


In its day, the Granada was the only suburban cinema in London to have its own 20-piece orchestra. The glamorous usherettes wore gold silk blouses with blue slacks, pill box hats, blue cloaks over one shoulder, and white gloves, while the doormen wore a blue uniform with brass buttons, peaked caps, and gold epaulets. On its anniversary, the cinema would serve every customer a slice of cake wheeled in from the baker next door, it weighed over a ton. Over 2,000 people were turned away on opening night, and over three million viewers came to the pictures here every year. However, the arrival of the television sent audience numbers into a tailspin, and the cinema closed in 1973. It was revived as a bingo hall in 1991.


You need to be a member to visit, though membership is free. Call the Granada for details.


more details in 'Secret London an unusual guide' oublished by http://www.jonglezpublishing.com