'I hope we can stay for as long as possible' Bingo fans praying for a lucky break

Change is in the air at Bristol's biggest bingo hall, with uncertainty over how it long it can stay in its current home. Tristan Cork visits Club 3000 and finds one of the city's friendliest communities underneath a doomed shopping centre

- 

STEPHEN Pidgeon walks through the vast brightly-lit space and is immediately greeted cheerfully by dozens of the people sitting in rows and rows of fixed tables and chairs.

The presence of the operations director raised the hubbub of chatter and anticipation, but he turned and smiled: “In five minutes’ time, you'll be able to hear a pin drop in here.”

And sure enough, on the stroke of 1.30pm, a reverential hush descended on the huge space and an amplified voice from one side was the only sound.

“Five and two, 52,’ the voice, which belonged to a young man called Billy, said. “Eight and three, that’s 83.’ This was bingo. We were in Bristol’s biggest bingo venue - Club 3000 in Knowle - where the friendly, family and community atmosphere is now hit by uncertainty and sadness, but also hope for the future.

Anyone who has never gone down the escalator at the far end of the Broadwalk Shopping Centre in Knowle is in for a big surprise. Beneath the shopping centre, the Club 3000 venue is astonishingly vast.

This is a venue that can hold a staggering 1,500 people playing bingo each with a seat at a table and the electronic pads and gadgets that enable modern play. Some players still use traditional cards and big fat 'dibber' felt-tip pens, and others somehow manage to do both.

On a busy Friday or Saturday evening, there could be as many as 800 people in here, and it has been known to go over 1,000 even in the years since the Covid pandemic.

While Club 3000's rivals across the nation have tried all sorts to pull in new punters - rave bingos, loud music and a party atmosphere - Club 3000 stick to what people come for: the bingo.

On a Thursday lunchtime, it was less busy. There was maybe 150 in, but in the vastness of this cathedral of bingo, they were spread far and wide among the rows of tables.