Trocadero to close

[spanglechick]

Kids are a shit age group to make money from. Their budget is usually fixed, so they loiter for ages before, during and after spending their cash. Incidentals, like fast food etc, sell very differently to kids than to adults. And parents were put off hanging around and spending money because it was fairly unpleasant.

Making the rent must've been tough.

 

[WWWeed]

It appears there is still a games arcade left in London. I've just been shown The Heart of Gaming in a Park Royal industrial estate:

https://www.facebook.com/TheHeartOfGaming

It's not the Trocadero but they do have some of their old machines. I strongly recommend checking them out if your into arcade gaming, or simply after something to do.

All the machines are set to free play, and It costs between £5 and £7 on the door to play until they close. If they do an 'all-nighter' then I think it's extra to stay overnight.

 

[Crispy]

There's also some people trying to set up a "barcarde" in peckham IIRC

 

[Ceej]

Mr Ceej worked for the Troc when Segaworld opened - it was incredible, mostly I remember the holographic fighting games...
I'm also old enough to remember when there was a casino and disco there!

 

[skyscraper101]

It definitely hit its peak in the early to mid nineties but started to resemble a ghost town toward the end of the 2000s. I used to take the quick route from Piccadilly Underground along the underpassage to get to Planet Hollywood quicker than navigating the crowds up at surface level. It felt like a secret route because by the mid 2000s hardly anything was there anymore. Just one of those old time photo setups where they make you all look Victorian and that always looked empty.

 

[Orang Utan]

Amusing Vice article with some great photos:
http://m.vice.com/en_uk/read/the-sad-decline-of-the-london-trocadero-012

 

[ska invita]

i worked at the Odeon cinemas all over the west end back in ...1994 i think...used to go clubbing in the west end a fair bit too...Bar Rumba roudn the back of the Troc...now avoid that area at all costs...but anyhow my favourite thing at the Troc was the glow in the dark slightly miniature bowling alley - anyone remember that? went there quite a few times in the past

 

[FridgeMagnet]

The Plaza on Oxford Street seems pretty dead now as well.

 

[twentythreedom]

Kensington Market isn't as good as it used to be either

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Nothing is as good as it used to be.

 

[pinkmonkey]

Kensington Market isn't as good as it used to be either

Well, seeing as it's now a PC World!

 

[Black Halo]

Nothing is as good as it used to be.

especially nostalgia ...

 

[blossie33]

I was just looking up the history of the place - amazing decor http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/TrocaderoLeicesterSquareLondon.htm

 

[Lord Camomile]

Picturehouse set to move in

The arthouse cinema chain Picturehouse is to turn part of the Trocadero in central London into a 1,000 seat seven-screen flagship venue - with lots of bars and less advertising.

The company will redevelop the former Cineworld multiplex in the wedge-shaped building between Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street where the French hotel operator Accor has just announced plans for the West End’s biggest budget hotel.

 

[skyscraper101]

In not totally unrelated news. I noticed that Namco Funscape has now closed

London's Namco Funscape arcade has permanently closed

In another death knell to arcade era, London's Namco Funscape has permanently closed.

www.nme.com

Are there any similar kid-friendly arcades/gaming things left in London?

 

[skyscraper101]

Someone just posted some rad photos of when Segaworld was in the Tracadero. Great days.

 

[ska invita]

Someone just posted some rad photos of when Segaworld was in the Tracadero. Great days.

I remember bowling there a couple of times, pretty sure same era
Neondayglo affair

 

[Lord Camomile]

Someone just posted some rad photos of when Segaworld was in the Tracadero. Great days.

I was not expect8ng Colin Jackson and Linford Christie to pop up at the end!

It's weird to have nostalgia for an escalator

 

[Elpenor]

I don’t remember this place existing and certainly never went. Maybe my brother went once.

But then I didn’t (and still don’t) like video arcade games or computer games. So nothing for me to enjoy there. Far too overstimulating as well.

Was it like a big version of Noah’s Arcade in Waynes World or the place where John Connor went in terminator 2?

 

[PTK]

I only just saw this thread and noticed that someone mentioned playing Galaxians for 10p a game on the 1980s; that brought back memories.