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Just brought this postcard from ebay unused but estimate cica 1900. Taken at Williamson Cottage, Raby Mere, Wirral. Shows Shooter and Gripper plus Sweetmeat vender! Also an amusing cigar advert card circa 1890 from St Paul's Minn.

Nice find

Why were such nice machines often sited in such dull locations?

Hey….I resemble that remark! I mean, resent. I lived just outside St. Paul, MN for 17 years and I can tell you we were anything but dull. Well, maybe a little dull but that's because we only had two seasons: winter and road repair.

J Peterson
Sharpening up in America

Olde English cottage with thatched roof and lovely tea gardens. Dull?
I'd go, especially if they're serving scones with jam, cream and vintage slot machines.

pennymachines wrote: ↑Mon Jan 22, 2018 6:18 pm Olde English cottage with thatched roof and lovely tea gardens. Dull?
I'd go, especially if they're serving scones with jam, cream and vintage slot machines.

You're right, very cute, perhaps dull is the wrong word, more odd.....

So many of these old postcards show machines sitting outside a small grocer or house like this, where perhaps my perception is amusements would be near a famous visitor site, seaside venue or place with large footfall. This place looks like some sleepy village in the middle of Salisbury Plain.

I think this may have been a true "public house". I think I can see a bush or bundle of small branches hung over the door which was the generally used sign of a public house.

The beer bottles on the table would lend weight to that suggestion.

I see that there have been over 150 hits on this item so as there seems to be some interest in these old postcards. I now share with you all my 'top ten' from over 300 I have collected over more than 25 years. They are in no special order but all English locations. The Madam Zita was taken by a commercial photographer from Birmingham. My favourite is the cast iron cricketer with the family in the circle. Judging by the dress and pram, this must have been about the time it was new on site (the machine was patented in1899).

Thank you for sharing all those killer images Sweetmeats! The huge collection of machines in that one photo is amazing.

Excellent selection! I partcularly like the Lord George Clowes card. Does anyone know any background details to this?

Found another at the cottage in Chudleigh in Devon, obviously in their early days of Mutoscopes.

On my comments earlier, it is funny to see what we consider rare high end machines now in such basic locations. They must have been very expensive then - amazing they got a return on them.

Only thing I could find on Lord George Clowes, was that he was a Circus proprietor from Brighton. Maybe that is on Brighton promenade.

Some fantastic postcards there Sweetmeats! It's so cool to see these machines in the context of their original settings. Clearly pier-heads and pubs were favourite locales before the concept of a dedicated arcade had evolved.

Gameswat wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2018 5:16 pm The huge collection of machines in that one photo is amazing.

That's my collection - with Nursey in the foreground.

Regarding the 'Lord George Clowes' postcard, when I brought this postcard from ebay about 10 years ago I googled Lord George Clowes' but found nothing. I also had the postcard re-mastered and enlarged to A3 which I now have framed. This shows that the machines are set on scaffolding in front of an aquarium set in what appears to an arch similar to those in Brighton! The family at street level holding the banner by the railings with the wife/mother by the scales at the lower level. There are 16 clockwork working models in the picture that to my knowledge are ALL unknown to exist today, together with many other machines not seen before including three two player boxing games of similar style Ells. Treefrog would be very interested in any information you have found on ' Lord Clowes ' give me a call if you still have my number.

I think TF may be refering to: WAR CIRCUS: A-Z LIST CIRCUS 1914-1918

CLOWES, George

Aka: Lord George Clowes

Job: Circus Proprietor, Brighton

1914-1918 Notes: 1916 exemption denied, Served, wounded in back & chest in Belgium August 2017.

Ref:. N. The World’s Fair, 7/10/16 and 21/8/17

I assume 'August 2017' should read 'August 1917'.

Yes, you're right Mr pm. Just googling, but I wonder if Brighton is a red herring, as another article which had been posted in the Liverpool Echo pointed to New Brighton near Wallasea, opposite Liverpool. It had a pier and a popular Victorian seaside town.

That's interesting, I also started to go down the New Brighton route but you seem to have nailed it! Strange, because the ironwork in the background of the A3 enlarged photo, as Sweetmeats says, looks like the arches at Brighton, East Sussex.

Brilliant! Thank you so much for posting, Sweetmeats. May we see some more please?

The address mentions “Tower”. I reckon this was the New Brighton Tower built around 1890, once the tallest building in Britain. It fell into disrepair after the First World War and was taken down, but had many uses, including a permanent funfair which went into the 1960s. I suspect this was where this was based. The Beatles played there and Buffalo Bill.... There is a book with many pictures available....

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Brighton_Tower

https://www.pinterest.co.uk/roy0589/the ... -isbn-978/

Found another at the cottage in Chudleigh in Devon, obviously in their early days of Mutoscopes.

On my comments earlier, it is funny to see what we consider rare high end machines now in such basic locations. They must have been very expensive then - amazing they got a return on them.

Actually, not such a strange location in its day. At that time certain country villages in areas of particular beauty suddenly became the "in" place were very popular holiday and day trip venues. Tea rooms, picnic areas and even fun-fairs were common attractions at these rural sites. There were two close to me in east Sussex Alfriston (which survives today as much the same attraction, although now reached by car and not rail), and the Devils Dyke (which is now just a beauty spot, but once boasted a hotel, two pubs, two tea rooms and a permanent fun fair). Your postcard of Chudleigh was one of these areas of particular beauty that caught on and, amazingly, the cottage still exists and is a popular bed and breakfast with its own website. More than likely a tea rooms in the day of the postcard.

Your last postcard shows the Tivoli Theatre on the right hand side. Strangely enough, this was where I bought my four reels Mills in 1970. Not used as a theatre for many years, the stalls had been used as an amusement arcade in the sixties. It closed for good the same year. All those years ago but I can still remember the smell inside that place, old wood and grease with a touch of Hai Karate (that was me).