There is hardly anything to write for this history for this location due to how new the build is. Even the date of when Buzz Bingo moved into the outlet has not presented itself online. It is not a spectacular place but was quite photogenic in modern way with nice symmetry but, you may disagree.
Back in July, Buzz Bingo announced the closure of 26 of their bingo halls which put 573 jobs at risk. On March 21st 2020, Buzz Bingo closed all their halls due to the coronavirus pandemic before following up with the announcement that some sites would not re-open. As of recent, Club3000 have began taking over some of the Buzz Bingo sites and Robin Park was one of them and work inside is well underway. Upon reading the numerous articles detailing the closures of each hall, I began pinning each one and working out which ones would be worth a look at. Some used older venues that had previous uses such as being a cinema or theatre, which inevitably intrigued us more.
However, Wigan's hall was never one I'd imagined us checking out but on one evening after being dragged out by the other half of The Excursionists and failing every lead and location, we resulted in a drive to this spot. With it only being 20 mins drive away and on the way home we thought we would stop off and have a poke around. The retail park where the hall sits was relatively quiet which was good, allowing us to walk around without looking too out of place. As I'm sure you're aware, newer builds don't exactly offer many access points, but we were lucky to find an easy way inside. We were aware of the security systems from other Buzz Bingo halls and this site was no different meaning we dealt with many sensors inside.
View of the front of the bingo hall with the DW Stadium in the background.
View of the rear of the building which is extremely bland and modern.
When we got the first look inside before retreating to let the alarm ring out, we could see the lights on inside and how many bingo tables had been removed, making us want to see and document it before it was too late.
Tables and machines remained on the raised levels.
A bar was centred at the rear of the room and tables and chairs were dotted about where people would have socialised.
More from the top level of the hall.
We then headed through one of the sets of double doors underneath the raised area of the bingo hall which brought us to another social area and bar. The lights most definitely worked here but we didn't even think to turn them on...
Following this area round lead you to where people would have entered the hall. Unfortunately the shutter between this room and the main entrance was down (but we were certain it was going to be modern and nothing special).
All that was left to explore after this were the staff rooms, storage rooms and maintenance areas. These were powered also and held a lot of items such as prizes for winners.
Firstly the staff breakroom.
Locker rooms.
Storage rooms.
I believe this was used for ventilation but I may be wrong.
To finish off, some film shots Alex took to finish his roll off before development :)
As I mentioned it is not an incredible place rich with history and architecture but one of the signs of the damage COVID has done to businesses and can be used as a reference to that I guess.
