1950s - '60s British arcade photos

[pennymachines]

...a large green drum rotated towards you and you had to steer a bar using the steering wheel and un lock doors on the drum. Anyone know what these were called and who made them?

It's Irish Sweepstakes, made from 1948 by Stevenson & Lovett (as was the Strip Teze).
You steer a nurse, and the drum represents the rotating drum from which nurses used to draw the winning lottery tickets (with names of racehorses on them). The Irish Hospital Sweepstake ran from 1930 to 1987, supposedly to raise funds for underinvested medical services in Ireland, but mostly to line the lottery owners' pockets.

[coppinpr]

Imagine opening up that arcade as a sealed time capsule! Because of its lack of gambling machines it's stuffed with machines that are rare and valuable today, cranes, viewers, fortune tellers and strength testers. The Mills strength tester in photo 7 would fetch a pretty penny today on its own! Anyone ID the strength tester side on in photo 11? Perhaps from the same stable as this Automatic novelty. Both the machines in the arcade photos were guaranteed to give you a hernia that's for sure.

[dickywink]

Some amazing photos there ... and some stories to be told about running arcades in those days ...
Here is a photo that was sent to me by Freddy Bailey for my website www.ditchburn.co.uk it shows his fathers arcade in 1955 which was situated at the top of Mundesley Cliffs in North Norfolk, the arcade is still there and operating today, it is now owned by one the Grays showman family. i spent much of my pocket money there as a child playing many of the Bryans and Jamiesons machines that they operated there during the 60s and 70s

The Photo shows the centrepiece of the arcade which was a Ditchburn Music Maker T100 ( Tonomat ) 100 play Jukebox plus many of the allwins and wall machines.

All the best ... Dicky

[special when lit]

Great photo.

[pennymachines]

Thanks to Freddy & Dickie for the picture.


Youths gathered round a machine in the amusement arcade at Canvey Island, 1956



Young Mods in an amusement arcade in London, 1964

Does anyone have a decent photo of the Stevenson & Lovett's Irish Sweepstakes? I've seen a few of these peculiar games at auction over the years but it's bugging me that I can't find a decent picture here, elsewhere on the web, or in any of the books.

[gameswat]

This was formerly Bob's machine and has since changed hands a couple times. At least two fairly complete examples are in Aust that I know of.

[pennymachines]

Thanks GW, that's great. I've put it in the Museum.

[pennymachines]

We compared photos of Southend seafront to see how much it changed in 60 years
Essex Live


Day trippers from London's East End seen here playing the one armed bandits in an amusement arcade of Southend's seafront (Wheel Em In on left)


Two elderly ladies playing the slot machines at the end of the pier in 1963


A holidaymaker listening to her fortune being read by the Telefortune machine


Tourists playing the slots in 1963

(Images: Daily Herald/Ron Burton)

[treefrog]

Great pictures.

The picture below has a line of bandits call Duchess I have never seen before, obviously a Gunther Wulff based machine, but the size and shape of a Mills extraordinary, looks like a plastic case maybe

Also great to see another Space Flight in action on the right and lastly the Jackpot Shefras Allwin which dates them back to arcades in 1963

[coppinpr]

Are these also marked "Duchess"? It could be, but the first letter not quite right perhaps?

[pennymachines]

Bonfire of the town's arcade machines.

Nice little piece in the Great Yarmouth Mercury, Nov. 2019

Money to burn: amusement arcade owners protesting against a tax celebrate in front of the flaming bonfire of gaming machines on November 5th 1969. Picture: Mercury Library

They look remarkably cheerful for protesters.

Slot machines being carried on to Great Yarmouth beach in 1969 to create a Guy Fawkes Night bonfire. Picture: Mercury Library

The irresistible bright lights of Barrons' Paradium amusement arcade on the Golden Mile in the 1960s. Picture: Colin Tooke Collection

[dickywink]

Hi Guys
Great article and photos in the Yarmouth Mercury ... I sent the link Pennymachines posted to Freddy Bailey in the USA and he came back with some info that was totally unexpected ... Firstly his late father organised the trade association making the protest at the time called The Seaside Operators Association, and the bonfire was a protest against taxes on player positions, not just the machines. In the photo below Freddy's father is second from the right ... And Freddy Bailey is 6th from the right, standing directly behind the German wall machine on the floor.

Freddy sent me some more photos of his father's arcade / café bar at Mundesley North Norfolk in the '50s to put in this thread.

Below is the arcade at the top of Mundesley Cliffs.

The next is a photo of the café bar on the left of the arcade.

And lastly, inside the café bar with Freddy sitting at the end.

Some amazing photos to add to this amazing thread ... keep them coming.

All the best ... Dicky

[pennymachines]

Embed from Getty Images

Skegness, East Lindsey, Lincolnshire, 22/05/1954. Adults and children around a game machine at an amusement park, during a Laing staff trip to Skegness. In 1947, after a seven year break, Laing had resurrected their 'Area Outings' for staff and their families, with trips taking place in May and June. In 1954, there were seven outings planned to take place over five weeks in May and June. This trip to Skegness was for employees and their families from the Midlands and South Yorkshire. Artist John Laing plc. (Photo by Historic England Archive/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

(Waltonian Merchandiser in foreground, Bonzini Bord de Seine crane on left)

[treefrog]

Found on a local Facebook group so hopefully ok to post and could not see before. Beach bonfire on Clacton-On-Sea . I wonder what the double front machine called Crusader was