Taking a Look At the Trocadero in London, UK Before The End

arcadehero February 21, 2014 8

Newsfeed 1348 via The Stinger Report

It’s been a pretty slow news week, which I will chalk up to post trade show doldrums. In case anyone is interested, I just posted a new montage video of arcade games from 2011 here. I’ll be working on a 2014 video soon.

We’ve always seen a bit of interest in the situation surrounding the arcades located at the Trocadero facility in the center of London, UK. News came around that the final arcades operating in the area would be shuffled out by the end of this month and Kevin Williams of The Stinger Report, which is based in Purley, UK has dropped by to take one last look at the location before the closure takes place. It appears that depsite the closure announcement, whoever is operating the games there is going to keep some of them going right up to the very end; thanks to Kevin for the pictures below.

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The arcade machines that are seeking for every last coin that they can get while at this location. Some games are headed to the Las Vegas Soho which is in London, although I am not sure exactly which ones yet.

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Now for the post-apocalypse sadness as tear down begins….

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With a new hotel venue opening up in the place of this facility, I imagine arcades will find there way back, although not in the same quantity.

 

8 Comments »

  1. williams February 21, 2014 at 5:48 pm - Reply

    Goodbye trocadero arcade, you will be missed.

    GAME OVER YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

  2. jon hooper February 22, 2014 at 1:13 pm - Reply

    sob..:( another one gone .tintagnel arcade,brixham gone the UKs arcade scene is just getting smaller and smaller

  3. Dave_K. February 24, 2014 at 10:54 am - Reply

    Glad I got to see the Troc in its hey-day (2011). Amazing multi-floor sprawl of arcade and redemption games as well as bowling, bumper cars, etc. Good times.

    • Arcades4ever February 28, 2014 at 10:00 am - Reply

      I only ever got to go once but it was so worth going there. It was a huge arcade that will be truly missed. It’s sad that something popular like Funland is forced to close due to greedy landlords :'(

    • Meng March 6, 2014 at 4:14 pm - Reply

      If you think 2011 was the trocaderos prime you obviously never saw the Sega World way back when.

      It used to start at floor 11 or so, and then work its way down and around the trocadero, the funland you knew and loved was only the final 3 floors or so of Sega World.
      I wish i had some pictures but I must have been like 10 at the time

      • Arcades4ever March 12, 2014 at 3:38 pm - Reply

        I had heard about it was better in it’s heyday but personally it was way better than any other arcade in Europe anyway. I feel like Funland was the queen bee of all arcades in Europe and now it’s gone it’s like the games that are released now are more catered for casual gamers and very basic traditional games apart from the odd few like dark escape and Mach storm etc. arcades are still popular but because of things like this it’s no wonder arcades are dying out and for the reason like landlords

  4. Steffen June 18, 2014 at 11:19 pm - Reply

    There are still arcade games in that building.

    I was in London for a few days. When entering the station at Picadilly Circus I noticed that the underground entrance to trocadero is still open.

    It’s the 5D World that still remains although it can be easily missed.

    https://www.facebook.com/5dworld

    Their selection of video games is actually pretty nice.

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