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Never Judge a Building By Its Architecture

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Published
09/19/2019

A Russian orthodox church has been turning heads for all the wrong reasons. Architecture? No. A building to play host to an intimate religious gathering that dates back centuries? Wrong again. Much to many people’s surprise, this hall is actually a bingo hall located in the South of London, Tooting-UK.

With beautiful intricate art deco designs that can only be marvelled upon (and possibly lose you a bingo game), this hall is a vision of artistic splendour. Dating back to early 1931, the church was primarily built for the purpose of enacting as a cinema and theatre to locals-being named as the Granada theatre cinema. Owned and commissioned by the Media Baron Sidney Bernstein it screened films for a total of 40 years, with its first ever played film being ‘the American released Monet Carlo’. It became quite a popular choice of venue with surrounding locals and passing by commuters. Due to the war, however, the building was passed down and re-renovated to host as a music venue, for the largest acts of the times such as The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and the Rolling stones. Even to this day, Sadiq khan-the mayor of London has taken a particular fancy to the building, calling it his favourite building in all of London!

The design itself was envisioned and created by Russian architect Theodore Komisarjevsky, who is famous for his grand Romanesque gothic designs, he wanted to enrapture visitors in the same way and bring across a religious experience-mirroring the religious experience Bernstein had on his visits to Spain.

The cinema/music venue went through a difficult patch facing financial difficulties during the 1970s, becoming vulnerable to deconstruction, due to the massive decline in cinema and viewing. It reportedly dropped from 10,000 visitors to 600 customers per week, yet local councillors disagreed for the building to be demolished. It first became a grade 2 listed building in 1972 due to being given a preservation order for the heritage and beauty of the building. The misfortune only took a turn for the worst, with severe weather and storms ultimately damaging the venue and putting it out of business completely. This left the building unused and becoming derelict until the light at the end of the tunnel shone opportunity for the building to become a bingo venue in the year of 1976. From 1976 until 1991, the building was still in the hands of the Bernstein family, until an offer was made that could not be refused for a whopping sale of £147million to the well-known bingo mecca Gala Bingo. Bingo was the fate of this beautiful building all along…

During the fall of the year 2000, the building was re-evaluated by the council for its historical build and promoted to a grade list 1 building with the following care procedures taken to the building. It is now considered as one of England’s most historic builds and sought to be preserved and protected by local councils.


This article was created and researched by Fatima from https://bingosites.bet/ For more information on this topic please contact info@bingosites.bet

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