encounters

house!

February 25, 2026

Cities have rarely belonged to women. Yet in the post-war optimism of the 1960s, a quiet revolution appeared: the bingo hall.

Here, women arrived after work, after childcare, after long days of unpaid labour. They came with friends, neighbours, sisters – laughing, gossiping, sharing cigarettes and small fortunes won and lost in an evening.

The ritual was simple. Eyes down. Numbers called. Pens tapping cards. Then a shout – “House!” – sending a ripple of excitement through the room.

For a while, these halls offered something rare: a public room not organised around men.

By the 1980s the rooms began to thin out. Habits changed. Smoking disappeared. The halls closed, one by one. In their place came cocktail bars and restaurants where a single drink costs more than an entire evening’s game.

A few places tried to keep it going – Duck & Rice among them, with Soho’s uncrowned queen Violet calling bingo until she passed away in 2020.

Every so often the numbers are still called in Soho.

But the room has changed.