IT WAS 10 years ago to the day when the Daily Echo reported that Southampton's Mecca Bingo was to close after 40 years and would be transformed into a super church.
The bingo hall in Portswood was sold to a local church group who made an unsolicited offer for the building.
A farewell party took place for May 4, 2011 as the 855 capacity bingo club closed its doors for the last time
The former theatre and cinema became a bingo hall in 1967. It was bought by the Rank Group in 1971 and branded as a Mecca Bingo.
The building originally opened as the Broadway Cinema on June 6, 1930 when 1,546 movie-enthusiasts packed in to watch Rookery Nook starring Tom Walls.
Broadway Cinema shut its doors for the last time on October 26, 1963, when John Neville starred in Unearthly Stranger and Diana Doors appeared in West 11.
The venue is now Victory Gospel Church.
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