Description

656-1/40/1463
05/08/75

SAW CLOSE
(East side)
Gala Bingo Club
(Formerly Listed as:
SAW CLOSE Zetters Social Club.
The Regency Public House)

GV
II

Social club, formerly the Palace Theatre. 1903 by Wylson and Long, incorporating fabric from an earlier theatre of 1886.
MATERIALS: Main halls in rubble or brickwork, with slate, tile, or asbestos cement roofing, foyer unit, facing Saw Close in ashlar or rubble, mainly painted, with slate roof.
PLAN: Complex of halls, earliest to south, immediately adjacent to Cannon Cinema (qv), extended northwards in two smaller brick units, accommodating large gallery level, enclosed by surrounding buildings, and with narrow three storey pavilion with high pyramidal roof, facing Saw Close.
EXTERIOR: A handsome music hall front survives intact. The entrance front has arcaded ground floor, framed and recessed upper storeys, pyramidal roof. Ground floor has three pairs of glazed doors with transom and fanlight in triple arcade, to entablature with panelled frieze, carried by channelled pilasters. Main opening to upper levels flanked by giant pilasters, fluted to upper part and to composite like capitals, carrying main entablature with deep, close set brackets in frieze, returned each side, and with blocking course having tall dies at each end with pyramidal finials. Pilaster bases are carried across balcony as open balustrades with dies. At top of front is a wide flat segmental arch, with scroll keystone, over recessed balcony. Central louvred ventilator flanked by panels, above three narrow paired casements with deep transom lights, framed by fluted pilasters with scrolled capitals, with swags above windows; entablature with dentil cornice. Steep pyramidal roof has lead hips, and carries lofty flagstaff; the ball finial referred to in former list is no longer in situ. Halls partly visible from Bridewell Lane, early front section has rubble walling capped by ashlar parapet, with some evidence of former window openings. Part has broad ridge roof with tiles, and ridge ventilators. Other halls are later, in brick.
INTERIOR: Auditorium remodelled in 1930s, when a straight-fronted balcony inserted: some evidence of Art Deco decoration to doors and to roof members remains from this period but otherwise now plain. All seating replaced with tables and chairs; the stage and boxes were removed in the 1950s when converted to a dance hall. In 1969 the saloon bar was converted to pub use when the auditorium became a bingo hall.
HISTORY: Opened as the Pavilion Music Hall in 1886, it became the Lyric in 1895 before undergoing reconstruction as the Palace; this it remained until 1956, when it became the Regency Ballroom before being changed to a pub and cinema in 1969. It entered use as a Zetter's bingo club in 1980 and, in 1986, a Gala bingo club.
SOURCES: John Earl and Michael Sell eds., 'The Theatres Trust Guide to British Theatres 1750-1950' (2000), 9-10; M. Chapman & E. Holland, `The Development of the Saw Close from the Middle Ages', Bath History VIII (2000), 56-79.

Listing NGR: ST7490764798

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26673942

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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