The former Gaiety Cinema was constructed in 1912 for the Splott (Cardiff) Cinema Company (SCC). It was renovated in the 1930s, when the entrance was remodelled, a balcony installed and the roof raised to accommodate the new sound system. The original height of the building can be seen in the swaged cornice on the main facade. The cinema closed on 3 September 1961 and in the same year was converted into a bingo hall, known as Top Rate Gaiety bingo club from 1968 to 1998. From 1998, the building underwent significant internal renovation, including the removal of the balcony and other original features. and installation of a new floor, before opening in 2001 as the Spin Bar and Bowling Alley. The Spin Bar and Bowling Alley closed in 2006, since which time the condition of the building has deteriorated. In 2012, the building was occupied by The Gremlins, a squatters? group, who staged a protest, painting messages on the building.

The building has a distinctive appearance. Cylinders decorated with ionic colonnades and carrying decorative domes flank the three-door entrance and entrance canopy. Above the entrance, an advanced bay carries a dentilated string course and segmental pediment bearing the legend `The Gaity? over a tipartite window. Behind this, the facade carried an ionic colonnade supporting a cornice decorated with swags, indicating the former roofline.

(Sources: John Newman, Buildings of Wales: Glamorgan (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1995), p. 308; Gary Wharton, Ribbon of Dreams: Remembering the Cardiff Cinemas (Wakefield: Mercia Cinema Society, 1997), unpaginated; Sion Morgan, `Activists occupying former Cardiff bowling alley pledge to `stay put?, Wales Online, 26.03.2013; Jessica Walford `Former Cardiff cinema which opened more than 100 years ago is to be demolished?, Wales Online, 24.10.2018; Matt Discombe, `Former Cardiff Cinema set to make way for eight-storey tower of student flats?, Wales Online, 20.05.2019)
A.N. Coward, RCAHMW, 21.05.2019