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Thanks Jingles, Not sure I feel younger and BP we must be the same age.....

My memories are more the fairground and larger amusements behind the Casino.......I must go through family pictures as probably have thousands...The Dr Feelgood video makes it seems much grimmer than it was, honest that was not the case. A lot of Londoners moved there just after the war in very basic prefab accommodation, in fact most of the properties there now, were once prefab shacks, which is why the floods had such an affect. Now they have Dallas style houses in small plots.....My memories go back to 1969 and remember the Island being flooded under 2 foot of water....Family still is attached there as my mother owns half a dozen properties in Furtherwick Road and many family friends are still there.

The sad thing about our seasides are the horrific sea defenses now needed to keep the sea at bay....When I was there is was a pleasant grass bank and now there is this large what seems like curved concrete (military defense style) wall. This seems to be happening all around the coast line and affecting most of our sea side towns...

Ho Hum

Which year was that Daveslot?

I remember the grass bank and the beauty of Canvey in years gone by. Okay, the Press has never been kind about Canvey but I did spend some of my youth there and I rather liked it. Sadly, as treefrog has said, the concrete wall has ruined it. I am sure they could have engineered something a little better than that!

Lovely machine by the way. More photos of the golden years much appreciated.

slotalot wrote: Hi Gameswat I have some photos of the Casino arcade at Canvey on my website, http://www.slotmachines.bravehost.com/page8.html this is where your machine came from

Great pics on your site Slotalot! Thanks for the link as I'd not seen about 40% of them before. The E/M pinball photo you have as 1950's? would date 1967 or later as I can see a classic Gottlieb "King of Diamonds" on the far left, which was released Jan 1967.

And very interesting photo with Acker Bilk in front of a line up of different Allwin style looking machines all sharing the same angular modernist steel cabinets as "Slick". But I've only ever seen that case used on Slick before your photo. Anybody ever found any of these oddities? And I imagine these were also manufactured by the Slick company, NORTH AUTOS?

Hi Gameswat,
Thanks for the correction on the pinball date, I have now updated the web page
I am always looking for old photos of "British" arcades to add to the page. If anyone has any photos they would like to share via my webpage, please PM me and I will get back to you.

Slot, you also had a few photos I hadn't seen of the floor standing Essex "Full Team Cricket" machines on location. I got a little excited when i saw the close-up with the two sailors playing one, as the background scene of a grandstand at Lords is hand painted, as they all were. Checked with photos of the machine I once owned.....but not an exact match. Though not as far fetched as you may imagine, I have in fact matched two extremely rare machines that were found in Australia by a friend, dating 1900 and 1920's, to actual pre-war photos from Bollands personal scrapbook! Both had unique converted features that stood out, plus one had nice oak graining which was like comparing a fingerprint. Maybe I'm in the wrong occupation, should be a detective?

People often say I'm one.
Hang on ..... that's a defective!

Double Six now fully restored. The back-flash and marquee sign were both badly shrunken and warped. After removing both I softened them with a heat gun and then sandwiched with two sheets of thick glass to cool off and flatten. This time I decided to try something new and after refitting the back-flash laid a sheet of polycarbonate plastic over the top to help stop any chance of further buckling. Hardly noticeable and worth the extra trouble I think.

Beautiful job. The plastic over-layer will also prevent ball friction wear to the original flash.

Wow .... good enough to eat!
And that bit of its personal history in the middle at the top is superb.

badpenny wrote:And that bit of its personal history in the middle at the top is superb.

Too right BP! And when you add the rest of the story - sent to the US in the early 70's to be sold at that Californian department store that went broke, then purchased at auction for the Glenn collection, sold much later to two antique dealers, eventually falling into the hands of the illustrious US collector of UK treasure John Peterson, driven by him across the country, then eventually sold on to me to be shipped half way around the world to Perth Australia! Phew.....

Who'd have thought you could get so much mileage out of one?

BP
ps I've just learnt I have cousins living in Perth ....... surname Smith ..... do you know them?

Gameswat wrote:...sent to the US in the early 70's to be sold at that Californian department store that went broke, then purchased at auction for the Glenn collection, sold much later to two antique dealers, eventually falling into the hands of the illustrious US collector of UK treasure John Peterson, driven by him across the country, then eventually sold on to me to be shipped half way around the world to Perth, Australia! Phew...

Nice Machine Do you have to throw a double six to see where it goes next?

Very nice.

Yes it is very nice and hugely jealous,,,,cannot afford the extra miles for it to make a journey home back to the UK

Had I known you back in 2003, Gameswa, and the eventual destination of this tasty allwin, I could have left it for you in Los Angeles and shaved 4,000 miles off the odyssey.

J Peterson
American Travel Agent

No John it was 2001. The clue is in the title of the film? Duh!

Slotalot wrote:Nice Machine Do you have to throw a double six to see where it goes next?

I would have it back in Blighty any time - a very nice restoration Mr Gameswat

Sadly there is just too much invested in this to make it worthwhile shipping back to the UK for anybody. Somebody is looking at it in person the next few days, either for himself (long time operator and collector) or for a customer of his, another long time operator who wants some history! So does seem fit that it might get back to its original roots in a way. I'm broke so the cash is badly needed.

found pics of arcade and storage area

Well I have found another theme for collecting, buying machines from your local arcade from when you were young.....Really fancied this Double Six, but as Gameswat mentioned to me, it would have cost a fortune to buy and ship to the UK.....by chance a week ago a Hawtins came up on Ebay and I happened to notice the same badge on top for Canvey Casino......Had to have thisn .....Now a proud owner and looks very original, even has original cash tray inside. The owner a lady in her eighties had had it many years and bought from the original family who owned the arcade....:-)

Well this is number 65, Gameswat's number 3, so another 63 to collect if they exist