When the bingo closed in 1994 the building was left to the weather. By the time the trust got the keys in 2010 there was a hole in the roof over the stalls, the balcony was propped on scaffolding and the entire proscenium had been hidden behind a false ceiling since 1968 — which, as it turned out, is the only reason the plasterwork survived at all. Two years of work put the roof back, took out four hundred bingo seats, uncovered the maple and left almost everything else exactly as we found it. The gilt on the arch is original and deliberately unrestored: it is the colour a hundred and eighteen years actually makes, and no paint chart has it.

Doors are at half past seven for live shows and ten for club nights, and the stage times are printed on every ticket because we keep to them. There is no cloakroom on club nights but there is one for seated shows, at two pounds a coat. The bar takes cards and cash, and the Gods Bar upstairs is usually the shorter queue after the support act. We are a listed building, which means step-free access through the Ravenscliffe Road doors and four wheelchair spaces on the flat at the back of the stalls — ring ahead and Nadia will hold one, along with a free ticket for whoever comes with you. Earplugs are a pound at the box office and free if you ask for them for a child. There is no parking on site; the multi-storey on Portland Street is four minutes away and free after six.