History of Bingo Illustrated by Ian Grundy

by Hollie Sanders

Bingo has a very colourful history indeed, beginning at its roots in Italy in the 1600’s and through time to present day online bingo development. However if you have a real interest in the architecture of old UK theatres and dance halls which were traditionally turned into bingo halls during the “golden age” of bingo, then Ian Grundy’s illustrated history of bingo is definitely worth taking a look at.

He is a fan of this architecture and has made a photographic collection of images from historic bingo halls throughout the UK.

This history was put together for Playing bingo and it outlines the development of bingo in the UK throughout the mid 20^th Century and developments in technology with the onset of the popularity of television. This caused changes during the 1950’s and 60’s; old cinemas, dancehalls, social clubs and theatres were failing everywhere as people preferred to stay at home and watch TV.

But these premises with the rise in popularity of the game of bingo, were found to have just the right character, particularly the cinemas to accommodate people wanting to play bingo and with very little change to the actual structure of the buildings, became almost instant successes. This illustrated history is worth a look at if you are a fan of bingo architecture.