Disappearing Southend: Arcade Memories - Kim Justice 

Thanks for the great video, Kim. Southend is in my blood - for better or for worse. My father born, just off the Seafront in Old Southend Road - has spent his life in and around the Seafront. He once ran the Wall of Death in the Kursaal. Parents of my friends even ran one of the Seafront restaurants for years. If you were to ask his generation, he would tell you that Southend and its seafront had began its decline even before a single Defender machine was installed down the front. But that's his story not mine. It was the Mecca of my youth and absolutely the catalyst for my love of video-gaming. I've been a visitor to the Seafront since the late 70's. I saw the 'front' blossom into this incredible video-gaming nirvana and back out again. Southend had all the games - often long before other places as it was used as a testing ground for games 'financial viability' due to it's close location to London. I have only recently moved back to the area after being away for nearly 15 years. In that time I lived near other Seafront towns (Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft) and in North Manchester. So I got see that the same thing had happened to those seaside towns as had happened to Southend. So Southend certainly isn't unique in its downturn. And being in Manchester meant I got to visit Blackpool and Bury's The Arcade Club. All those machines in Bury crammed next to one another was just like my youthful experiences in the arcades of Southend of old. A must visit for lovers of Arcades. I have so many memories from the time - playing Double Dragon in Stardust because it was 2 lives with 5 health points for 10p instead 20p with less health like all the other arcades. Catching one Southend's best players WWW putting his name at the top of every game he played. Buying Starquake on the Spectrum from a little shop near the gas jetty with my paper round money and spending the rest on the incredible sit down Space Harrier that had just appeared that morning in the Las Vega arcade. Three player 1942 in the Arches under the pier. I could go on and on. Visiting recently - I'd say that maybe things have improved a little bit. Whilst the Kursaal is nothing like its glory days - Adventure Island has become pretty decent. My son loves it for example. And much improved over its Peter Pan's playground days. Even though on a grey rainy winters day - Southend and other UK seaside towns look depressing and lost. Go back to those same places on a beautiful Bank Holiday Monday and see the crowds and kiss me quick hats and maybe it's not so different as it used to be.

I remember that bowling alley on the pier, was the first and only time I saw Fighting Vipers 2 in arcades. But the late '90s were the heyday for me, when the shopping center wasn't taken over by TK Maxx and Gumby's sold brand new Dreamcast games :D

I remember skeggness arcades that stretched the full length of the pier. I remember in the early 80s as a child hearing Dragons lair theme and the cries of body blow from the punch out machine. At the front you had the newer arcades and the longer you got to the pier it was the old classics like space invaders and Phoenix Pac man . From the entrance to the pier used to be full of arcades, ive just recently been back and there's hardley any proper old school arcade machines are left. At least the camel race machine where you roll ping pong balls is still there.

Very much looking forward to more of this, seeing how things have changed and having it recorded for posterity is culturally and historically important. Best to you and yours!

I've lived in Southend since 2005, and have seen the place decline considerably in most respects during that time. Your video really hits the nail on the head.

The slow decline of the arcades of my youth was sad to see. As the games reached 50p / £1 a go it all seemed to fall apart. The nail in the cofin I still think was the PSX generation thou as no longer were the home versions a pail imitation of the arcades.

I wish there was a "Dead Arcade Series" like there is for Dead Malls on youtube. A dead arcade can be just as eerie by itself.

I used to go to skegness with my parents at least 4 times a year to open, close and maintain a caravan for my gran throughout the 80's and early 90's . I would spend all my time and money in the arcades no matter what the weather was like. I decided I was going to go back last year for a few days to relax and take in some classic arcade fun, but every arcade was full of claw, penny pushers and tv themed games like monopoly. Yes You have the raw thrills modern takes on classics and also quite a few sit down driving games, but I couldn't find a single classic game from my memories and it made me quite sad. When I found Arcade club I was happy to drive for a few hours and it was beyond my expectations so yes I have to agree that Arcades are starting to make a comeback and it has to be related to emulation and the PI making it so easy to play these older games.

Kursaal closed in the mid-late 70s i believe. Used to have a massive dancehall in it as well. The Kursaal estate was built in the 80s, not a recent thing. there was a lot of land behind the facade. And as the for bowling alley it went something like this: Council: "we're going to re-open the Kursaal and there will be a brand new 24 lane Bowling Alley in it!". Then the old one burnt down. Nothing suspicious there!

Great Yarmouth is the same. I suppose from the 50's through to the late 80's, even into the 90's, a lot of people spent their family holidays in the UK. We always did. But from the mid-eighties onwards, vacations moved abroad. So that the only families that go on holiday to places like Yarmouth and Southend tend to be the ones that can't afford to go anywhere else. People refer to Great Yarmouth as a "chav" holiday destination, indicating the type of people you're likely to find there. I still think kids of any "class" love to go there, they see the place in a different light to their parents.

You're about the same age as me and grew up in the same area, with the same interests. Probably ran into you a bunch of times outside Burger King, I was one of the grungers in the late 90s/early 2000s. Love your stuff, inspired me to get my Megadrive out of the loft and it now has pride of place in the living room.

Love it, I could listen to you ruminate on the 90's all day. Really like the direction your video/editing style has been moving in lately too, your videos have all been looking better and better.

Great video Kim, thank you. Being from the east midlands I've never been to Southend but we had our own alternatives up north and the memories echo yours. For my brother and I it was Cleethorpes, Maplethorpe and Skegness. Our grandparents would take us regularly from the late 80s to mid 90s, give us a fiver each and we'd spend hours chewing through 10ps coins. Games like Superman, Moonwalker, Roadblasters are burnt into our brains. Afterwards we'd get fish and chips and sit on the sea front often freezing our nips off. Oh man, it's all coming back, thanks once more Kim for the video and I can't wait to see more.

There is a surprising parallel with Blackpool here. I spent a good part of my youth there, in the arcades, the pleasure beach and so on. The arcades are all full of slot machines now - its rare to find anything other than the occasional knackered guitar hero cabinet (complete with non working guitars....), places like tussaud's, sea life centre, Ripleys etc are so expensive on admission it's ridiculous. It used to be a really great night out too - loads of nightclubs and bars. Most of what's left you wouldn't want to go into for fear of not coming back out! It's a real shame. So much of our history being erased. Great vid Kim. Look forward to the rest of the series!

Bittersweet to hear memories like this. Growing up in a small town in southern Finland, the closest arcade to me was in an amusement park ~30km away. If I got to visit there two times a summer, I was super happy. Didn't really give many shits about the rides, when there was an opportunity to play games like TMHT and Alien 3. :D I don't remember many other games (although there were a lot,) but a memory that's burned into my brain is being scared shitless by the attract mode to Sega's Laser Ghost (that doofy laugh the demon makes, hahaha.) Another place was this huge gas-station thingie on the route to Helsiki. That place didn't have many games, but it did have a Mortal Kombat machine.. Memories.

I have a few fond memories of going to Southend too (I was born in Harlow). We didn't go there very often, but it was always great fun in the arcades and fairground etc. One of the main reasons to go there was because it had one of our nearest Maplin stores, and now even that has gone now. :( (to be fair, Maplin have probably be doomed for years, since they stopped being more of an electronics components shop, and started selling tons of overpriced HDMI cables, or rebranded stuff from China. They simply couldn't compete with the online stores any more, sadly.) Some great footage in this vid, btw.

As I see this video was posted on the 25th, that seems a coincidence to me as on that day I happen to drive by a mini golf course and arcade up in San Jose. I can't think the last time I'd seen such places. When I was a kid, we lived near International Drive in Orlando and a favorite thing to do was go to Fun 'N' Wheels which along with the go-karts and mini golf, had an arcade (not very big but kids liked it) and there was Showbiz Pizza further down the street. I use to love going there and playing an old racing game that had you actually shifting with a proper stick to move the car on the board in the time limit. I could spend a couple of hours happily between that and skee ball.

Well that was interesting. I remember going to Southend on occasion in the 90s and early 2000s. I always wanted to go more but by the time I was old enough and had money to pay for the train it had become a shadow of it's former self. I do talk to people quite often about how we would love to have somewhere to go. We like video games, board games, card games, we don't search out the clubs, crowded pubs or over priced food places and coffee shops. We're gamers! I live in London. Almost everyone I know would love this kind of thing as they ethier rent in a place that they'd rather not be, live with parents due to poverty or live no where near the rest of us so we head into the city and there isn't really anywhere there that we'd like to go. The few arcades are just the same old generic Namco Funspaces and one tiny old one in Soho. So if arcades, barcades or whatever could become a common thing then we'd be all over that. Hell even just a room to slap down a board game would be a hit!

Great film! bring back Keddies! I was born in 1970 and Im from Leigh on Sea, now living in Westcliff, I used to love going to the arcades back in 1981 & 1982, great years for arcade games!

I was in one of those horrible so called arcades in Blackpool a few years ago, at the end of a row of grotty fruit machines was sat a buggy with two tiny, clearly weeks old twin babies. I looked around for a parent only to see the mother sat on a stool putting coin after coin into a rip off machine. It upset me so much I had to leave. Seaside town have become sad,depressing places. A sad slow painful death.

As a kid arcades we’re always highlights of my holiday, every year they would improve with better visuals and sound, far better than I could see at home. While I know we have it far better these days I do still miss that on some level

Great Yarmouth in Norfolk faces the same fate as Southend. On occasions a few friends and I would get the train from Norwich to Great Yarmouth (early 1990s) and spend a few quid on the games. The fruit machines never interested me either. I remember 'Mad Dog McCree' and I loved Daytona USA. I think even 'Pole Position' from 1982 still had a presence in many of the arcades. In Norwich itself there was 'Magic City' and 'Silver City', the latter had 'the Simpsons' arcade game that I was rubbish at. I'm sure Ashens will remember those places.

So sad...I have so many memory's. I guess once home consoles ended up being just as of not more powerful than the arcades - it took the point of them away.... now it's a nostalgic relic that this generation won't see the beauty in.... they'll be antiques one day!

As I'm from Southend myself, I've experienced the great arcades back in 1990's and heartbroken to see the state of them today, I've visited The Arcade Club a couple of times and the memories come flooding back. If only we had something like that down here, I know there's Astro City (of which, I used to be their manager) on Friday nights, but three hours just isn't enough to get my arcade gaming fix.

I had the same memories of Redcar and Scarborough, the arcades were a big pull. As soon as home consoles became a big thing the arcades declined.

Clacton makes Southend look like Las Vegas.

This might be my favourite of all your videos. Love it!

"Like pub crawl, but for kids!" Love your sense of humor. Seeing "Kursaal Way" made me half-wonder, for a moment, if someone had decided that was meant as "Curse Always," a directive for what to do with the place... Anyway, looking forward to more of the series! (Also, now I'm humming "Every Day Is Like Sunday." Hmm...)

I'm from folkestone and I remember my beloved Rotunda being smashed to peices . Sad times mate but as much as I'm grieved to say ..times change and these memories are a wonderful part of our lives!!!

Even though I live on the west coast of Scotland I can totally relate to this. Looking forward to more of these.

I've been waiting for this... Thanks Kim!

Scarborough was my childhood holiday destination, and it's not just the (then brilliant) arcades on the sea front which captivated me. The many campsites we stayed in from there to Filey also had plenty of absolute gems. The flower of may in particular had a bubble bobble machine that, whilst not technically impressive at all in 1997, captivated me and still does.

I was in the UK for a soccer(football) tour in 1991 and we spent a week in Aberystwyth, Wales. They had a nice little seafront amusement area with a pier and arcade... I spent every minute of free time I had down there eating fish and chips, drinking Lucozade and playing Street Fighter II. Good times.

Loved the arcades in Southend as a kid, we would come from Scotland to visit my gran a few times a year and id spend hours as a kid, then days as a young adult when i was able to visit on my own. Recently down for a funeral and went down the front, it brings back a lot of good memories but its a shame seeing the arcades everywhere just turn into gambling places. My personal firsts in the southend amusements were Streetflighter with the big pads you had to kit, Punch out, Marble Madness, Track and Field and the various wrestling games, i can still visit in my head where id go straight to as soon as i took the short walk from Christchurch road :)

Kim, nice piece. Although I'm from the states, so I would have no memory of this particular place but with the footage you've shown I can easily imagine similar-looking places in the states that succumbed to the same fate. The few places that still consider themselves video arcades here today are now nothing more than redemption centers for junk. I dearly miss the days when I could lean my quarter up on the front glass of Street Fighter II or MK3 signifying that I got next game or I play winner. Only fond memories now.

You could win money on that Crystal Maze trackball game. We had one in the student union, and you could easily tell when it was due to payout. It didn't really matter how well you did on the games (each mini game gave you little more time at the end) , the distribution of gold to silver 'tokens' in the dome at the end was all that really determined whether it would pay out a fiver though. We used to sit and watch it and stick in a well timed pound when it was due a payout!

Good video. I went to the Arcade Club in Bury last year and it brought so many memories back of the 80s and early 90s of Withernsea arcades (now sadly the same as many other coastal towns) All the machines had thier attract mode playing and I could here familiar sounds coming from different areas of the club. Great to see parents showing thier kids what the arcades were all about, kids playing 4 player on gauntlet 2 and not knocking the graphics etc but were genuinely amazed places like this existed,a place where kids came together to play games not like today where you sit online giving abuse to people on call of duty 15. I've ordered a bartop mame arcade machine so when my son is old enough at least he will have some idea of what completing bubble bobble with a friend was like, minus the £20 to do so of course!! :)

I have such fond memories of going to the arcades at Whitley Bay (near Newcastle) & Spanish City as a kid. Turtles in time, The Simpsons Arcade Game, Caveman Ninja :) wish we could go back to those times. I had my poor Grandad walking around there for hours.

Awesome video. The decline of the traditional arcade is very sad. 😥

Someone tried to open up an old school arcade a few years back just off of the high street that was full of hardcore shmups and such. They really struggled, within a year odd they'd largely replaced everything with the same sort of things you find everywhere on the sea front, but there was still some interesting stuff here and there in the place. There was also another place opened up recently for retro arcades on London Road, haven't got around to going yet. I'd imagine the Corona virus will be the death knell for these sorts of places unfortunately.

I grew up in the 70's playing video games. I remember seeing the first Pong arcade machine in the local bowling alley where my mom used to bowl in her league, and from that point on, I fell in love with video games. I still remember the games the first arcade I ever went into had that I played (Berzerk, Rip Off, Star Castle, Space Invaders, Battlezone, Sea Wolf, Asteroids, The End). Back then, it never even crossed my radar that these crap, rip off, mostly rigged, ticket machines, claw machines, prize machines, thinly veiled gambling casino games for kids, would become the mainstream arcade games. No one ever played them or gave them a second glance in the arcades! They just sat collecting dust most of the time because everyone knew that they were rigged or they were just a rip off. The state of arcades nowadays is absolutely shameful.

Been waitin fo dis

Great stuff. My memories of the arcade parlour at Metroland in the Metrocentre seem like I walked in heaven once. Adjacent to an indoor fun-fair which was atop a bowling alley. The electronic hubub pierced by the whoosh and screams of the roller-coaster and pins falling. The smell of fries, popcorn, hot-dogs and pizza whilst playing Turtles, WrestleFest or that generic football game. Bliss

Great video Southend Arcades were awesome back in the day 🤗

Great stuff, Kim. Had similar experiences in Weymouth and the Isle of Wight. Managed to complete the Simpsons before TMNT, though! :)

Another fantastic video Kim as always. Looking forward to the rest of the series. Like yourself as a youngster I spent many a day in the arcades at Southsea seafront, Portsmouth. We were lucky enough to have a full size Ridge Racer cab once upon a time which was pretty special.

Interesting to see a video about my local area on RU-vid. You have a subscription! 😊

i only went to southend once in 1990 when i was 15 but the arcades are burned into my memory. i have never seen anything like it. looking forward to seeing the rest Kim :)

Great video Kim! I’m looking forward to seeing what else you cover :]

Love it KIm keep feeding me your nostalgia so many arcades have come and gone here in new england, the best one ever is called FUNSPOT its outlasted my teenage year and still stands today the largest arcade in the world, King of Kong was filmed there. the others well they came and went and its sad, one still stands but its called funworld and its a hack job of crap a wast of space really.. but good danm, i loved arcades still do pinball and all the other stuff that comes with them, My first memory of Arcade games were Kung FU, and Arkanoide,

Back in the day I had a friend at Art school who was from Southend. I asked him what was it like? He said that there was nothing for me down there. The night time photo at 0:50 looks cool, It looks like a mini Vegas. Lol. I feel your pain Kim. I feel the same about my home town Croydon. Although it was never a looker, you could always find somewhere to go in the 90's. Independent music shops, Model shops etc. The 2nd floor of Debenhams used to be full of arcade machines. Me and friends used to go there after school. X-men vs Streetfighter was regular choice among my mates. I was a Daytona USA fan, Although it was funny watching my mates putting 50p in, and then getting destroyed by a Seasoned Pro. Lol To be fair, Croydon has been in decline for the best part of 20 years, but I believe it's the same for most towns across the UK. For me, there is a direct correlation between the rise of the internet and the decline of the town, the arcades, shops etc. When you walking in town and you're going past 2 or 3 Poundlands in the space of 100 meters, you know the "show" is over. It's Sad.

I'm really into this. I know nothing about the British gaming scene of the '80s and '90s (as you well know, I suppose), so I'm very interested to see where this goes. Cheers!

Good job so far Kim. But you got your like just for the sheer mention of Knights of the Round.

There used to be a decent arcade scene in New Brighton in the eighties and early nineties, but most of them are all long gone now. There a couple of arcades but as it’s a seaside town they mostly have those 2p pushing machines in them now. Liverpool also used to have a stack of great arcades in the 80’s and early 90’s, but I had do sneak into them as you had to be 18 an over to go in beacuase of the fruit machines. Great times though :)

Very good, can't wait for more episodes

As a fellow Southendian I agree. Great video Kim.

Totally feel the same way and have not been able to fully understand the changes to this day.

Who remembers the place up the other end of the high street opposite the cork and cheese pub? It was a swap shop for video games run by someone called Brad? He has some arcade games . Street Fighter 2, world heroes and a few others. I spent a lot of time there.

Soooo glad to see this series has arrived, i've been waiting for ages now 'I love your show!' is now actually relevant(play expo manchester, lovely to see you btw, i'm not as scarey as i look.lol), keep up the stirling work. I think the whole quid a game policy that became the norm for arcades, didn't help the situation. Arcade clubs maybe the future, i'm hopeing to hire the bury 3 level wonder for my birthday next year.

Redcar is a northeast equivilent of Southend for me, most of the arcades are gone and whats there now is a shadow of it's former self from the 90s...*SIGH* and Middlesbrough is 5 miles away...Great video as always. Awaits next one.

Did some quick math on my state; there appears to be one dedicated arcade for every 220,000 people.

Great video, can't wait for the next episode. As a kid, I visited southend a lot in the summer with my grandparents as they lived in canvey. Your video brings back great memories, thanks. I also spent a lot of time at Canvey arcades (could that be an episode?). It's the same there, only a few arcades left, full of penny pushers. I take the kids there now, they love it, but my heart sinks when I think what it used to be like.

Growing up in the Midlands, arcades weren't much of a thing down here. What we got was a fruit machine and a single arcade game at the local chippy. But that was our portal to the electronic world. The cabinet was a generic sort, the game would change every couple of months or so. I remember being mesmerised by a helicopter game, which I later realised was Choplifter. But the big daddy was Renegade. Holy hell, I was obsessed with that. Couldn't progress beyond the first level mind you, and at one point I had a fixation for trying to walk on the train lines, which was ludicrous as it was a death area of the screen. But then in the 90's, Street Fighter II took over. And whilst I like the game, it got boring that the owner never changed the game once that started raking in the coins. For proper arcades there were one or two In the city centre, but they seemed like no go areas so nobody sensible ever stepped foot in one. But it was the seaside where all the action was. Being a Chissit (Google it.), naturally I invariably holidayed on the east coast. Skegness, Mablethorpe, Chaple St Leonards. But somehow, I never used to play them much. A big entertainment complex opened just off my estate in the mid 90's. Man alive, it was like Disney World had landed on the doorstep. A cinema, Bowling alleys, erm... McDonalds. It was the nuts. The bowling place had an arcade area which featured one of the most thrilling arcade games of all time. And yet, for the life of me I cannot find out what it was called. It was a tactical tank fighting game. Two players competed against each other, seated in a mock up of a tank, you had a large screen each and you had like 7 or 8 tanks each and had to blow your opponents up. You stalked around either a city or a desert landscape. This was mid 90's, it was the absolute best and if anyone knows what it was I'd be so grateful to know.

I'm looking forward to the rest of this, This sort of thing is right up my street! 😉

Top video, I'm kind of disappointed that most arcades that are left are just fruit machines and claws. But they were good child hood memorys. I loved those laserdisc video shooters.

Having recently moved to Southend having visited friends here a few times a year since around 2000 I've noticed a slight downturn but nothing that isn't happening everywhere else. Every single high street is being decimated. The arcades are still around which is a good thing but they're just full of 2p shove machines, 10p fruities, ticket machines and the odd Outrun 2 or Daytona USA, but arcade gaming itself died out years ago when home machines became super-duper powerful. I don't think we'll get anything cutting-edge here as I get the impression the owners are happy with cheap and cheerful machines and getting a bonanza of visitors every Bank Holiday Monday. Southend will never go full Blackpool as it's an hour from London on the train and will attract commuters, I just wish the local council would realise this and invest some money to bring in the hipster money like Brighton - sure it's not what it used to be but Southend is still a beautiful place and we should cherish that.

I really like this idea Kim. I will definitely be watching that series. Hell I might even click the bell icon.

01:02 In my time it was the same but it was 'get a Wimpy' or "Get fish and chips' on the way home lol

Those Dedman Gray to let signs in the town seemed sadly fitting to the situation.

Yep Southend is rough now days Basildon is the same tonnes of high street shops closed down or replaced by chicken shops, Turkish barbers and mobile phone shops...

I moved to Maldon earlier this year and truck down to Southend every now and then. Why? Because it is one of the few places where pinball can be played round here. There's a Playboy and a rather wrecked Elvis up the back of the Sunspot and in Adventure Island there's a very recent Ghostbusters and a Star Wars Trilogy, as well as a constantly out of action Data East Star Trek. I believe there used to be an Addams Family around there but it was always busted. Vidya pinball is okay but real life pinball is so much more fun. It's a proper tactile experience.

I was there last week, nostalgia is a hell of a drug, but it's not necessarily a dangerous one. We wouldn't have an issue with change and the loss of things we loved if it was replaced with something, but what is left is peak capitalism, a Hannah Barbaraesque background of repeating shop fronts all selling the same thing, hoping to fleece those who want to experience the dying simulacrum that is the "British seaside". What we're seeing is the death throes of IRL community, it's happening everywhere, no room for quirk, no hope for things that don't return the profit the market demands. You can see it across the country, Bury football club being a case in point. property developers, monopolies and unemployment mean maximum atomisation and the next 20 years are going to be very very grim indeed.

Great video can't wait for next part

Aaaah Kim, what a wonderful video. Thanks for going to the trouble to document this. Very heartfelt tribute and hopefullly will start something moving!! I grew up on the Lincolnshire coast (Sutton on sea, Mablethorpe, Skegness and LOVED going to the arcades with my mates (and a quid pocket money) on Saturdays. I'd watch my friend Johnny totally milk super Mario with 1 10p he was that good. God we had LOADS of games in Mablethorpe alone!!! Fantastic times. As fore the resurgence have you heard of :: geocities.fourquartersbar.co.uk/welcome-peckham/ . The Four quarters is an excellent bar / arcade / gigspace / nightclub venue... Itd be worth a vizz if your in South London. :) Thnkx again KIm. Been waiting for this vid.......

So heart breaking seeing Southend going downhill like this. Although it's still no comparison to Jaywick!!! This seems to be the case nationwide, pubs/clubs shut, shops shut, high streets empty. I've got small children and I wonder what they'll do when they're old enough to go drinking/clubbing. Everyone is becoming lazy, buying stuff online and barely leaving the house. I worry for the future (bugger, I'm proper sounding like an old man, it was better in our day blah blah blah haha)

Can’t wait for the next episode... I think the decline of arcades started around the early 2000’s when airhocky tables started to become populair.

Never been to England and never heard of this place. I'm already hooked still

Bloody mandara!!! Even on the master system too!!!

going up to the trocadero nowadays is heartbreaking. was a shell when i last visited it

I played that crystal maze game in the pier bowling alley too!

Same story in Cleethorpes. Its all bandits and ticket machines now in the seafront arcades. Gambling took over . Cleethorpes had all the 80s and 90s video games. all the classics. Its all sad and run down now and must of been a point in time when all the arcade games got sold off really cheap or scrapped to make space for fruit machines.

I love the noise of the old arcade. We made do with dingy backstreet, downstairs venues, full of greasy haired teenagers and grimy, cigarette scarred cabinets.

Seeing Street Fighter 2 The World Warrior still gives me that feeling when I first saw it in Porthcawl

:) Forgot about the grungers bench :)

As usual an amazing video, I also morn many arcade and overall pop cultur related locations in my hometown, very good idea, keep up the good work.

ah South end been there once my main stay was great yarmouth cause there were so many arcades near the sea side

haha my local snooker club growing up had the crystal maze one.

Born in Southend 1970, left in 82 now live in NZ, can remember making few hundred pound a day from coin pusher without putting in a single coin lol. Cher Phil S my partner in crime.

Bring arcades back!!’

Was in Southend the other day and the oldest arcade I could find was 18 Wheeler. Try Canvey arcades, may only be 4 arcades there but there are few retro cabs worth the visit.

ridiculous *number* of arcades.

Same everywhere all seaside towns are fucked. The magic is gone.

I wish there were arcades with all the classic games, like space invaders, pac man, tron, donkey kong etc etc.

Its a shame. Used to love going to Southend for the day.

That was beautiful

Redcar arcades...90's...amazing!!!!

I remember the good times

Nice vid thx Kim

Blackpool was my local. I would stand for hours watching other people play when i ran out of my pocket full of 10p's :-) I realised the video game arcade was terminally ill when Soul Calibur was released on the Dreamcast and it was graphically superior to the recently released arcade version.

Living in Peterborough we have two choices (yes there are others, but none with an arcade scene) when it comes to the coast, either Hunstanton in Norfolk or Skegness in Lincolnshire. It usually ended up being Hunstanton due to it being an hour or so down the road, It had a large pier arcade full of old classics and modern-ish games like SCUD racer, House of the Dead and a like. Now similar to what Kim has said Pier fires are a case of always going to happen and just waiting on the when, once the rebuild was complete it was just a shit show of penny falls, claw machines and the scourge of almost all modern arcades ticket spewing waste of effort machines. almost all classic machines were gone barring the small few which were only there as they were still taking money. The rest of the arcades in the area all went down the ticket route along with claw machines and other money making junk designed to pry the money from a 7 year old and their parents. Now I asked the question once to one of the attendants who had worked at one of these arcades for as long as I have been going and remember (32 years) what happened to all the old machines, suspecting they were sold or auctioned or hell given away, but no the answer saddened me, they were unceremoniously taken out back blindfolded and executed (they had met the business end of a sledgehammer). Every single old classic, Track N Field, Pac-Man, TMHT, Simpsons, outrun even Street Fighter 2 and many many more just put to the hammer. I suspect a lot of arcades did the same as there was not much call for them as there is now and no one wanted them in their homes so were just destroyed to save what money they had.