Wetherspoon pub to open in Edinburgh's Empire Bingo - here's how it has changed over the years

The former Empire Bingo Hall on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh has gone through many different guises in its long history.

By Group Reporter
Tuesday, 30th April 2019, 1:13 pm
Updated Tuesday, 30th April 2019, 1:40 pm
Inside the Mecca Empire bingo hall in Nicolson Street Edinburgh, October 1979
Inside the Mecca Empire bingo hall in Nicolson Street Edinburgh, October 1979

Following the news that the historic site is set to be converted into a huge Wetherspoons pub, here's a look back at it former uses over the decades, from theatre to adult cinema to bingo hall.

Originally called La Scala Electric Theatre when it opened in 1912, by the mid-1970s the building had changed to the Classic Cinema and began to show adult films
Charred and water-damaged fittings from the Classic Cinema lie in Nicolson Street after a fire in April 1979

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Nicolson Street as it looked in the 1960s
The gambling game grew in popularity in the late 1970s
Regulars enjoying a game of bingo in the early 1990s
The bingo hall at 50 Nicolson Street in recent years
The bingo hall started staging live performances in the 2010s
The bingo hall was one of many which went out of business following the smoking ban in 2006