Top Rank Bingo Probably not far from looking as it could today!	Mecca Bingo As it looked in its final years under Mecca management.
Albert Hall The leveled stalls area with endless rows of bingo seating.	Albert Hall Full on view of the stage/bingo platform.

   BINGO!  

   From the the 1950's onwards, for nearly 5 decades, bingo was amongst one of the most popular pastimes in Great Britain.  With the advent of television and eventually home video, cinemas across the nation were hitting very hard times indeed, cinemas that were once full almost nightly were now playing movies to just handfulls of people. Picture houses all over the nation were closing on an almost weekly basis. Many of these huge buildings would be sold off and mostly demolished to allow cities to add yet another car park or shopping precinct. The ones that were saved the fate of the demolision ball were quickly bought up by bingo companies and were swiftly converted into grand halls of gambling and entertainment.         This, luckly, is what happened to the Albert Hall.    

    When bingo did take over the Albert, in March 1978, at least Rank did a complete refurbishment of the auditorium back to its former early glory, though they did rip its original stage out and replace it with a suspended seating area which has a cafe and bar underneath. The spacious 1935 art deco foyer area with a two storey high bar area on the second floor with its art deco walls was still there untouched but completely closed off for office space but only with, thankfully, mostly non-permanent work. The projection box was covered over with a large numbers board. The enormous circle/balcony area has its seats still intact, over 1000 of them!

   So, bingo had arried and and saved one of Swansea's oldest historic buildings. Now, for the next 30 years with the houselights full up, much of the Albert Hall’s splendor was visible for the first time in over 50 years, all be it in the most hideous color scheme that bingo companies tend to favor!
   Bingo halls in the 1980’s and 90’s were packed and a very popular home for variety artistes to keep performing as the variety theatre and club circuit slowly dried up. The Albert Hall briefly recaptured some of its music hall days and some of the top names that played there included, The Three Degrees, Faith Brown, Frankie Vaughn, Little And Large, Wales’s own Tammy Jones and Windsor Davies and not forgetting a few cabaret spots from Swansea's very own Lyn Mackay, creator of local based musicals, 'Swansea Girls' and 'Swansea Women' and many more, all top names of the day entertained between the games. This is how the Albert Hall stayed for exactly 30 years. Mecca took over the building from Rank in the 90’s and again took pains to keep the building in very good shape in its final years open.