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Bingo hall Bowie performed in on 'at risk' list

Clara BullockSomerset
News imageBBC An Art Deco brick building is pictured. It has three large windows above the blue entrance and some smaller ones higher up. The entrance sign says "MECCA Bingo". The building is on a main road and there is a tree just in front of the steps into the building's entrance.BBC
The Gaumont Palace used to be an entertainment venue before it was turned into a bingo hall in the 1980s

A 1930s cinema and bingo hall where David Bowie, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones performed is being added to a heritage at risk list after its sudden closure.

Mecca Bingo in Taunton, a listed cinema built in the 1930s, abruptly shut its doors at the start of June.

It is one of 18 buildings from the West Country that are being added to Save Britain's Heritage At Risk Register, a national database of neglected buildings.

Amy Popham, manager at Save Britain's Heritage, said: "The South West has so many wonderful historic buildings but sadly many of them are at risk from neglect and demolition."

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She added: "By highlighting these local landmarks we hope people will come forward with creative ideas for their future.

"Buildings like these are what make our towns and villages unique and reusing them is a great starting place for breathing new life into entire communities."

A community campaign group has been working for nine years to buy the Mecca Bingo building and return it to use as a live venue.

News imageDaniel Mumby An exterior shot of the Tone Works complex in Wellington, Somerset. The 18th Century factory buildings are in a visible state of disrepair. Windows are broken and shrubbery is climbing up a building in the foreground. Overgrown grass and climbing ivy paints the site as entirely derelict. Daniel Mumby
The Tonedale Mills were once at the heart of the local garment industry

Tone Works in Wellington is also being added to the list.

The site was owned by the Fox Brothers who were Quaker industrialists who built housing for their workers in the town.

Tone Works is a wet finishing and dye works dating from the 18th Century and still contains machinery.

It has been derelict and deteriorating for about 25 years.

The council bought it from a neglectful owner and has managed to carry out some remediation with the help of Historic England and others but it is a long way from being returned to productive life.

Luddite riots

Another building on the list is Boden's Mill in Chard, a lace mill built by a Victorian industrialist who fled Luddite riots in the East Midlands to start again in the West Country.

The site can date its manufacturing history back to the 16th Century.

It was later taken over by John Boden who also built workers' housing and a worker's institute in the town.

It has been empty for many years and, despite regeneration plans for the wider area, the money and momentum appear to have run out.

Other at-risk Somerset buildings on the list include the Former Lloyds Bank in Wellington.

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