Southwold Pier Amusements Arcade

Local Area

Southwold retains the old-world charm of classic seaside holidays, reminiscent of a time before package holidays became the norm. A popular seafront destination with affluent Londoners, visitors can expect to see walking poles, expensive SUVs and pedigree dogs being walked along the promenade. 

The town itself is small, though is home to Adnams Brewery, which is renowned the world over. There are also many historic and listed buildings of grandeur and the town still has an active fishing industry.

The promenade is home to many beach huts on both sides of the pier and there are beach front facilities such as public toilets, cafes and kiosks next to the bowling green.

Promenade to Pier

Approaching the Southwold Pier, visitors can see that it retains many Art Deco features and does not have the usual bright colours typical of seaside towns. Ironically, Southwold Pier does retain a large mural in dedication to George Orwell with quotes from his magnum opus - 1984.

The front area of the Southwold Pier contains the amusement arcade and also has a highly-rated fish and chips shop as part of the customer area. 

Outside are some fish & chip themed seating booths with windshields, which is always a nice touch for a nation fuelled by potatoes. Further along the Southwold Pier are a range of cafes, souvenir shops and the famous ‘Under the Pier Show’. 

Arcade Entrance

Upon entry through the front doors, visitors are greeted with a large open plan arcade gaming space with high ceilings. The décor and overall feel of the amusements venue is dated and there is a lot of dust and dirt inside and outside of the machines. 

There is a central change kiosk at the rear of the venue, with ticket prizes displayed on shelving behind. Toilets can be found at the very left-hand side of the venue with arcade visitors able to use these as well as the public toilets, which are just outside the venue. On the right-hand side of the arcad is a set of double doors taking patrons through to the Pier Fish and Chips Shop.

Coin Pushers

The central arcade floor is filled with lots of different coin pushers. There are modern and retro pushers, though most do have tickets for prizes and a good selection of shelf prizes including sweets and keychains. 

Branded coin pushes include Star Trek, Snakes and Ladders, It’s a Cracker, Justice League, Tom and Jerry, Busy Bees with most paying ticket wins. 

Classic Arcade Games

Southwold Pier Arcade has many classic arcade games and that is likely to it not being updated in several decades. This makes it ideal for retro arcade game enthusiasts. There are three joystick arcade cabinets in the rear of the arcade being Star Wars, Space Invaders and Defender. They also have two-player arcade shooting games including Aliens Armageddon, Terminator Salvation and a Time Crisis 4 classic machine. There Is also a nice retro air hockey table in this side area. On the right-hand side of the venue near the fish and chips shop entrance is another Space Invaders arcade joystick machine. There are also two arcade racing machines in the form of Dead Heat NOS and Sega Rally 3. 

Fairground Games

One of the stronger areas for this arcade venue is the great selection of ticket prize fairground games. They have Sonic Basketball, Coconut Shy, Crank It, Down the Clown, Bean Bag Toss, Power role and many more. Southwold Pier Arcade has focussed on traditional summer fete style games and also have Lane Master and Ice Ball Skee Ball. Next to the change kiosk is a large Connect 4 Hoops basketball arcade game, which is great fun for sports fans. 

There are also several different types of roll-down and flipper machines that pay tickets wins. They have Lucky Ducks, Snakes and Ladders, Smokin Token Extreme and Crazy Typhoon. The machine that really grabbed our attention was the Ghost Catcher quad in the right-hand corner. This was a hybrid flipper with roll-down wins. It was fun to play and paid out ticket wins. Another example of rare and unusual arcade machines at this venue.

Crane Claw Machines

There are many grabber style crane claw machines dotted around the outside of the venue with classic claw machines with plush and soft toy prizes such as Steven the Seagull and also a 'Find a Key' gold egg grabber. 

Ticket Slot Machines

Southwold Amusements has a small selection of ticket slot machines including a Cops and Robbers triple row and a standalone Adders and Ladders ticket fruit machine, both paying 500 tickets jackpots. 

£5 Jackpot Fruit Machines

In the left-hand side of the venue are standalone Sub Zero and Clockwork Orange £5 jackpot fruit machines. Just around the corner, near the toilets are a Golden Game and Red, White and Blue triple machines with upper feature boards. The venue is rightly more geared towards children and families. There are no casino slot machines with £500 jackpots at the Southwold Pier Arcade. 

Under the Pier Show

Further along the Southwold Pier is an exhibit called ‘Under the Pier Show’. Here, they show uniquely created fairground side-stall machines and oddities. These are coin operated and once activated, they present whacky mechanical exhibits to visitors. This has been a feature of Southwold Pier for many years and likely the work of a local enthusiasts group as new machines and exhibits often appear annually for the summer season. Certainly, a nod to the whacky and mysterious circus and seaside sideshows of the past, these individual attractions are certainly worth experiencing.

Venue Verdict

The range of arcade games here is well balanced for a smaller arcade venue and they do have some really interesting machines (Moreso if one includes the Under the Pier Show). The staff are friendly, and the amenities are on point, though sadly it is let down by lack of maintenance, cleaning and a general feeling of being run-down. Money has clearly been spent on modern fairground machines, though this investment seems to lack in other areas. With some tweaks this could easily be a 4- or 5-star venue. 

Featured Machine: Crazy Birds Whack-a-bird ticket machine