London's arcade bars are odd and oddly beautiful

1 year 1 month ago

London is a weird city, full of idiosyncrasies. Primary schools sit on the same street corner as late-night kebab shops, serving meat and chips to boozy partygoers. Million-pound houses are sometimes a few feet away from neglected council estates. And Victorian-era churches lay abandoned on the same road as a local gym. Put simply, London is what happens when you procedurally generate a real-life city.

One such idiosyncrasy is the resurgence in arcade bars that are becoming more and more prominent in London's nightlife scene, places where the games are (usually) older than the people playing them.

I've seen arcade bars take on multiple forms. Some venues are traditional arcades with all the classics you'd expect - Street Fighter 2, TMNT, etc - with a bar on the side. Some bars are drenched in neon lights and wall paints, more of a trendy art installation begging to go viral. One 'arcade bar' was just a club with a rowdy crowd and a lone N64 in the corner - I still managed to sneak in a game of Mario Kart, poking out of the jumping bodies like the blob from Inside.

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Author
Kaan Serin

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