IT has echoed to calls of "House" for more than 20 years, but the number is finally up for Blackburn's Mecca Bingo hall.

It closes this week with the loss of an undisclosed number of jobs after bosses said business had fallen to an "unsustainable level".

Bosses at the Rank organisation, which owns Mecca Bingo, said they were working with all staff to find them alternative employment. A spokesman said the town centre building would be sold although they refused to elaborate, saying their main priority was to deal with the staff. The spokesman added: "I can confirm that the Mecca Bingo in Blackburn will definitely close from Friday, October 5 when we will be having a farewell night for the members and staff. We are working with staff to give them our support and ensure they are able to pursue alternative employment either within or outside the company.

"The business is closing for purely commercial reasons. Over the last few years we have seen a decline in the number of people using the hall and it has become impossible to sustain."

Two years ago staff were astonished when the council painted a seven-car taxi rank along the front of the building 12 years after it was planned for when the hall was a nightclub. The mix-up meant disabled customers could no longer park outside. And four years ago, Muslim leaders in Blackburn supported a campaign to persuade Mecca bingo to change its name because they claimed it was "offensive".

MANY will recall the St Peter Street building as the Olympia Cinema which, a year after its closure in 1958, was transformed by the Mecca Organisation into the £130,000 luxury Locarno Ballroom, claimed at the time to be the most modern in Britain, writes ERIC LEAVER.

But few will remember its original role - a roller-skating rink. Opened on the site of a former livery stable in 1909, the Olympia Roller Skating Rink was one of four opened inside just four months in Blackburn that year as a skating craze gripped the town. The boom did not last, and less than two years later, the Olympia became a concert hall and theatre, but soon afterwards became a cinema, one of the 14 that Blackburn had at its picture-going peak.

But it was in its new role as the swish Locarno Ballroom that it will be most fondly remembered. Opened in November, 1959 and catering for up to 1,000 people a night, it quickly became the top dancing spot in East Lancashire as it boasted two resident bands, a revolving stage, a 'Cupid's Corner' with a two-tier 'wedding cake' bar, the Pony Tail milk bar and the plush Viceroy Bar.

Hugely popular were the Monday rock 'n' roll nights when hundreds of teenagers paid 1s 6d (7p) to dance to records - in the era before the word 'discotheque' was known. The Locarno was also in big demand on Thursdays and Fridays when it was booked for private and charity dances.

Among the stars who appeared at the ballroom in the 1960s beat-group boom were Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders, Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, The Who, The Troggs and Amen Corner. But ten years after the Locarno opened, attempting to shed its old 'palais' image, Mecca gave it a £30,000 facelift and turned it into the Golden Palms nightspot with the dance hall being given a night-club atmosphere and decor.

That venture gave way to bingo in January 1981 when, after fighting off objections from three existing town-centre bingo halls, the Golden Palms became the Mecca Social Club with facilities for more than 1,000 players at each session.