Kentish Express Ashford & District
Bingo hall controversy rumbling on
A rough diamond that holds the key to the regeneration of the town centre or a blot on the landscape that needs knocking down?
Whatever your view, the long-running debate over the future of the abandoned Odeon cinema-turned-Mecca Bingo hall shows no signs of stopping.
Built in 1936, the prime site was snapped up by Ashford Borough Council (ABC) for £1.8m in 2018 – a move that has helped fill our readers’ letters pages ever since.
Because soon after buying the building, the authority revealed plans to demolish the rear of the structure, retaining just the ornate frontage.
Although these proposals have gone rather quiet in recent months, bosses hope to turn the Vicarage Lane car park at the rear of the site into 230 homes, adding a new public square featuring “an uninterrupted view” of St Mary’s Church.
But this has angered those who feel the art deco landmark facing the Lower High Street would make a theatre and put the town on the map.
In 2019, campaigners from the Cinema Theatre Association (CTA) even wrote to Historic England calling for the structure to be given Grade II-listed status.
The effort almost worked, with inspectors calling the hall “a rare survival of an interwar cinema which has undergone comparatively little change since its completion”.
But they stated “while level of survival is a key factor in the assessment for listing, it does not override the importance of architectural quality in determining special interest”.
The site was said to be “neither representative of the typically modern Odeon style, nor of the best work by architect Andrew Mather”, and that “typical of Odeon cinemas the interior is not lavish, in this case relying heavily on economic applied decoration for effect”.
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■ Steve Salter is away