Arcade £7 an hour

Open seven days · noon until late · no membership

Forty machines, one hourly rate, no tokens

Everything is set to free play. You pay for the hour, not for the go, which means you can be bad at something for forty minutes without it costing you anything extra.

What an hour costs
A room of screens and seats, lit from below.

Under the shoe shop on Market Street, down the stairs at the back.

Eleven cabinets from before 1990, twelve from after, four pinball tables, two racing seats and a room at the back with six machines you can book for a birthday.

What is different on which evening

Tuesday

Pinball only

The cabinets go off at seven and the four tables stay on. It is quieter, it is cheaper, and it is how most of the regulars started.

A narrow room lit in red and blue.

Thursday

Two players or nothing

Every machine on the floor is set to two-player. Come with somebody, or come alone and be put with whoever else did.

Two people playing side by side, hands on controls.

Sunday

Under sixteens until six

Half price, no alcohol in the building, and an adult stays. After six it goes back to normal and the lights go down.

Old machines lined up along a wall.
House rules
A single cabinet glowing in a dark room.
The back room, six machines, bookable.
Hands on a lit keyboard in the dark.
Two racing seats, wired together since 2019.
A corner lit in pink and blue neon.
The stairs down, which are the only awkward part.

What it costs

One hour£7

Two hours£12

All afternoon, before five£15

Under sixteen, Sunday£3.50

Back room, two hours, six people£90

Tuesday, pinball only£5

Tokenswe do not have any

Membershipthere isn't one

Pay at the desk on the way in, card or cash. If a machine eats your hour we put the time back on, no argument and no form.

A corridor of colour, seen end on.
The inside of a machine, fans and cables lit blue.

Before you come

Booking
Only for the back room. The floor is walk-in, always, and on a Friday after eight there is sometimes a wait of twenty minutes at the desk.
Age
Any age until six, over eighteen after nine. Between six and nine it is over fourteen with somebody older in the building.
The stairs
Eighteen of them and no lift, which we are sorry about and cannot fix in a listed basement. Ring ahead and we will tell you honestly what is possible.
Drinks
Four beers, three soft, no cocktails and nothing on the machines. Anything spilled into a cabinet costs more than the evening did.
Birthdays
Back room, two hours, six people, bring your own cake. We do not do party bags and we will not sing.
Broken machines
There are usually two. The board by the desk says which, and they are never charged for.