LOVERS of historic buildings are waiting to see what will become of Westbourne’s Grand after the last bingo game took place there.

The building, which opened as a cinema in 1922, has been sold to property group Elliott Heron.

The grade two listed building was a cinema for 55 years and a bingo venue for almost 40, and the auditorium appears in Ken Russell’s 1977 film Valentino.

James Weir, heritage and conservation officer for Bournemouth Civic Society, said: “The building is grade two listed and, having been well looked after during its 40 years of bingo use, is remarkably intact internally.

“The auditorium looks pretty much as it did when it was built in 1922, with much decorative plasterwork and even the old screen mounting frame.

“Any future uses will have to satisfy national and local requirements as to conserving this very important example of a provincial, independent cinema, but one option would be to restore the building as a heritage cinema attraction.”

He added: “The building also includes an attached house, which was the home of the manager and fronts onto Westbourne Close at the rear. Subject to a proper heritage assessment, there is potential to redevelop this as a cafe or other revenue-base to serve the restored cinema, along with potential lettable office space on the first floor of the cinema itself in the current admin areas.

“In any case, a use which retains the auditorium as a unified space and resists destructive internal alterations would be preferable.”

But Hugh Ashley, a historian of Bournemouth’s entertainment venues and author of the forthcoming Westbourne Exclusively, said the venue had no future as an entertainment venue.

“In my view there is no way that it could be reopened as an arts cinema or theatre. The stage is miniscule and there are no other facilities or space for dressing rooms and the like,” he said.

“I imagine that it might well be converted into a Wetherspoons or something similar – and the circle could be used as a smaller private club, perhaps.

"But entertainment has changed so much in the past 40 years that big cinemas are now virtually dead, and the very large stadia are all the fashion.”

Simon Bartlam, whose family have owned the Grand for 40 years, said he had to sell up because bingo was no longer viable. He said he had tried in vain to interest arthouse cinema operators and other bingo operators in the site.