WHITSTABLE'S iconic Oxford bingo hall is set to become a Wetherspoon's pub.

The controversial deal was confirmed this week by a JD Wetherspoon spokesman.

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ALEX RIGDEN of High Street, Whitstable, said: "I don't think it's a good thing. There are too many bars in this place. What are the old folk going to do?"
JAN CARTER, of Essex Street, Whitstable, said: "I know how much middle-aged and elderly people like to go to bingo. It will be a real shame to take it away from them."
JON BIRD, of Oxford Street, Whitstable, said: "I'm afraid I'm a Nimby over this, it's a dreadful idea. We have a lot of good pubs. I think this will kill them."
SARAH TETLEY, of Clifton Road, Whitstable, said: "I'm not entirely sure. But Wetherspoon's have a good reputation for providing family pubs."
From this: The Oxford bingo hall in Oxford Street, Whitstable
To this? The hall is set to become a Wetherspoon's pub
RSMdb190710B pics for feature by work experience on body size and binge drinking. pics at After Lily fashion Shop Dorking. Fran McCaskill and the wetherspoon pub The Edmund Tyney in Leatherhead high Street. men are Sid Lucas Donald Haynes Robin Streatfield.
Photograph by: David Berman Surrey Mirror copyright 2010

And building owner Stewart Neame admitted the pub chain giants had expressed interest in buying the Art Deco-style property.

But Mr Neame said: "It's true Wetherspoon's have been interested, but along with lots of other people.

"It's a big property in the middle of Whitstable so it's bound to attract interest and I have often been approached to sell."

Mr Neame, who also operates the Connaught in Herne Bay, admitted numbers playing bingo at the Oxford were in decline.

He said: "The bingo industry has had a turbulent time over the last few years with Government taxation policies. In these small social bingo clubs like ours we don't do as much trade as the Government thinks."

A spokesman for the pub giant said they were hoping to exchange contracts tomorrow.

He added: "If you say we've bought it you're not wrong."

The Oxford picture house opened in December 1912, and was rebuilt in Art Deco style in 1936.

Bingo sessions began in 1962 and the last film was shown on October 4, 1984, viewed by a grand audience of just four filmgoers.