The Gala Bingo

Buzz Bingo is a chain of bingo clubs in Great Britain owned by Caledonia Investments. It has 92 locations.^[1] Formerly operating as Gala Bingo clubs, they were re-branded as Buzz Bingo clubs in September 2018, whilst the Gala brand continues to run its own online bingo and casino offerings under the ownership of GVC Holdings.^[2]

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History[edit]

Buzz Bingo has undergone several changes in ownership and branding including through acquisitions. They were originally Coral branded, a division of Bass plc. In 1983, there were 22 clubs and 24 located in their Pontins holiday camps.^[3]

The ownership acquisitions included a chain of 80 bingo clubs from Thorn EMI for £18.2 million in 1983,^[3] followed by another 30 by purchasing Zetters Leisure for £23 million in 1988.^[4]Granada plc's chain of 74 bingo clubs were added in 1991 for £147 million.^[5][6] This merger with Granada led to the company rebranding as Gala Clubs later that year.^[7] Gala was officially launched on 17 October 1991 when 17 clubs re-branded and launched a new image. There followed a series of further acquisitions under the Gala brand, including 17 clubs from Ritz in July 1998, 10 clubs from Jarglen in March 2000 and 27 Riva Bingo Clubs from First Leisure for £90 million in April 2000.

Towards the end of 2000, Gala then began a series of expansions outside of their bingo operations, with casinos from the Hilton Group in December 2000 and the Jamba Online business in 2001.^[8] This was later followed by a series of private equity sales of the company starting in February 2003 to the private equity firms Candover and Cinven.^[9]Permira bought a stake in the company in August 2005, which valued the business at £1.89 billion.^[10] In October 2005, Gala acquired Coral Eurobet for £2.18 billion and changed its name to Gala Coral Group, creating the United Kingdom's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator.^[11]

By 2015, Gala Coral was acquired by its rival Ladbrokes,^[12] but the Gala Bingo clubs were not part of the merger, and were subsequently sold to Caledonia Investments for £241 million in December 2015.^[13][14] This meant that the clubs used the Gala brand under licence from the Ladbrokes-Coral group and decided during 2018 to re-brand as Buzz Bingo.^[15]

Operations[edit]

Buzz Bingo now operates all the clubs previously on the High Street as Gala Bingo and launched its own online bingo, buzzbingo.com offering shortly after the rebrand was completed.^[2]

References[edit]

1. ^'Visit a Club'. Buzz Bingo. Retrieved 20 December 2019.
2. ^ ^ab'Gala Leisure to relaunch all clubs as Buzz Bingo with two-year £40 million investment plan'. coinslot.co.uk. International Coin Slot. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
3. ^ ^abBatchelor, Charles (10 September 1983). 'Bass buys Thorn EMI bingo'. Financial Times. London – via NewsBank.
4. ^Harris, Clay (7 June 1988). 'Bass pays 23 million pounds for bingo clubs'. Financial Times. London – via NewsBank.
5. ^Churchill, David (11 May 1991). 'Bass reshuffling its gambling interests'. Financial Times. London – via NewsBank.
6. ^'Granada Tooting, London'. Cinema Organ Society. Archived from the original on 9 June 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
7. ^Ashworth, Jon (23 September 1991). 'Bass seeks full house in Gala opening'. The Times. London – via NewsBank.
8. ^'Gala will spend £3m to make Jamba pay-to-play'. Brand Republic. 7 November 2001. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
9. ^'Bingo group bought in £1.25bn deal'. BBC. 7 February 2003. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
10. ^'Permira Funds buy stake in Gala'. Permira. 1 August 2005. Archived from the original on 13 August 2014. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
11. ^'Casino group Gala snaps up Coral'. BBC. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
12. ^'Ladbrokes to merge with smaller rival Coral'. BBC News. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2015.
13. ^David Cook (27 October 2015). 'Gala Bingo acquisition 'strange', says consultant'. Gambling Insider. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
14. ^'Caledonia Investments completes Gala Bingo acquisition'. Morningstar. Alliance News. 21 December 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
15. ^Zee, Carl (29 June 2018). 'Gala Leisure Rebrands Iconic Gala Bingo Clubs as Buzz Bingo'. Gambling.com. Retrieved 29 September 2018.

External links[edit]

The Gala Bingo Club, Tooting (formerly the Granada Tooting cinema) is a Grade I Listed building in Tooting, an area in the London borough of Wandsworth.

Originally built as one of the great luxurious Art Deco cinemas of the 1930s, it is still considered by many to be the most spectacular cinema in Britain.^[1] In his 1966 guide to London's buildings, the architectural critic Ian Nairn said of it, 'miss the Tower of London if you have to, but don't miss this.”^[2] In 2000 it became the first Grade I listed 1930s cinema and in 2015 was selected as an asset of community value.^[3]

History[edit]

The building was first opened as the Granada, Tooting in 1931.^[4] It was designed by the cinema and theatre architect Cecil A. Massey for Sidney Bernstein, as part of his Granada cinema chain. The interior was by the Russian theatre director and designer, Theodore Komisarjevsky, who also designed the Granada Cinema, Woolwich.

Construction had begun in May 1930 and was completed by September the following year. An opening ceremony was held on 7 September 1931 to much local acclaim, more than 2000 patrons had to be turned away due to limited space. It included a performance by trumpeters from The Life Guards and Alex Taylor on the cinema's Wurlitzer organ. The opening films that night were Monte Carlo and the British short film Two Crowded Hours. Double-features like this one were the main component of the Granada's programming. Variety shows would also supplement the screening schedule, including theatre and music performances as well as a small circus up until 1934.

Through the 1940s and 1950s the Granada became more important as a local venue in Wandsworth, attracting talent from further afield. Artists who performed there included Jerry Lee Lewis, Frank Sinatra, The Rolling Stones and on 1 June 1965 The Beatles performed two sold-out sets. The final artist to perform here would eventually be the Bee Gees on 28 April 1968. From 1970 the cinema's organ would be featured on the BBC Radio 2 program The Organist Entertains.^[5] Declining attendance throughout the 1960s meant that by 1971 the cinema was only receiving 600 patrons per week. Concerned that this would lead Granada to close and demolish the building, the Wandsworth local council applied for listed status. On 28 July 1972 the cinema received Grade II* listed status.^[6] Heavy storms in July 1973 led to the flooding of the cinema, damaging the organ in the process. This, coupled with the declining viewership, led to the closing of the cinema on 10 November 1973. The final films shown were The Man Called Noon and Perfect Friday.

Mecca Bingo

The building would lie unused for almost three years until it was reopened on 14 October 1976 as the Granada Bingo Club, Tooting. Granada would continue to manage the club until May 1991 when it was taken over by Gala Bingo (now Gala Coral Group Ltd) and renamed the Gala Bingo Club Tooting.

On 5 October 2000, the building was relisted as a Grade I listed building, making it one of three such former cinemas in the UK. It remains the only Grade I cinema of its style. Although the organ had been repaired in 1984 it had remained in relative disuse until 22 April 2007 when a concert was held featuring it. This was the first such concert since the 1970s. More storm flooding on 20 July 2007 damaged the organ chamber and console once again. Following a year long campaign by local resident Dan Watkins in December 2015, the bingo hall was listed as an asset of community value.^{[citation needed]}

The Gala Bingo Fundraiser

References[edit]

1. ^'Art Deco buildings in London'. Victoria and Albert Museum. Retrieved 18 October 2010.
2. ^Nairn, Ian (1966) Nairn's London, Penguin, p. 193
3. ^Taylor, Rebecca (16 December 2015). 'Tooting's former Granada Cinema wins recognition as community asset'. Your Local Guardian. Retrieved 18 December 2015.
4. ^Harwood, Elain (2019). 'Granada Cinema / Buzz Bingo'. Art Deco Britain: Buildings of the interwar years. Pavilion Books. pp. 186–187. ISBN978-1849946537.
5. ^'Archived copy'. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 18 December 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
6. ^'Gala Bingo Club'. Historic England. Retrieved 18 December 2015.

Bibliography[edit]

• The Granada Theatres, Allen Eyles pp. 42–49 (Cinema Theatre Association, 1998) ISBN0-85170-680-0

External links[edit]

• How We Built Britain excerpt covering Granada Tooting, BBC

Gala Bingo App