The Regent

When cinema-going fell out of fashion in the 1970s, the Regent faced the wrecking ball like so many of its peers. But salvation arrived in an unlikely form: bingo. For nine years, the Art Deco theatre became a Mecca Bingo Hall, preserving the bones of a building that would later be resurrected by over 100 volunteers who restored it to its 1931 glory. Today it screens everything from the latest blockbusters to live satellite broadcasts from the Bolshoi Ballet and houses a tiny museum in its projection room.