place

Namco Funscape

1997 establishments in England2021 disestablishments in EnglandNamcoTourist attractions in LondonVideo arcades
Video gaming in the United Kingdom
Namco Station, Waterloo, SE1 (5653443424)
Namco Station, Waterloo, SE1 (5653443424)

Namco Funscape, formally known as Namco Funscape County Hall, was a Namco amusement arcade located on the ground to basement levels of County Hall, Westminster, London. Originally opened as Namco Station in August 1997, it operated as one of the capital's leading family and corporate entertainment centres for 25 years, closing permanently in August 2021 due to redevelopment plans blocking a lease renewal.The centre was owned and ran by Namco UK Ltd (formerly Namco Operations Europe), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. It has served as one of the company's longest-running flagship locations, outlasting examples opened in other countries. The centre had different types of arcade games and amusement attractions, including arcade video games, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, pool tables, ten-pin bowling, air hockey, Super Shot and Whac-A-Mole. Though generally targeted more towards families and tourist groups, it has also been a site of numerous official and unofficial esports tournaments for arcade video games as well as location tests. Namco continue to operate other centres under the same Funscape name in other parts of the United Kingdom, with similar examples to the former County Hall site situated in Trafford Centre, Manchester, and Metrocentre, Gateshead, as well as other smaller locations elsewhere.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Namco Funscape (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Namco Funscape
Westminster Bridge Road, London Lambeth (London Borough of Lambeth)

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Wikipedia: Namco FunscapeContinue reading on Wikipedia

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N 51.502 ° E -0.119 °
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Zen China

Westminster Bridge Road
SE1 7PB London, Lambeth (London Borough of Lambeth)
England, United Kingdom
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call+442072611196

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zenchina.co.uk

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Namco Station, Waterloo, SE1 (5653443424)
Namco Station, Waterloo, SE1 (5653443424)
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Revolving Torsion
Revolving Torsion

Revolving Torsion is a 1972–73 kinetic sculpture and fountain by the Russian-born Constructivist artist Naum Gabo. It was commissioned for the Tate Gallery and has been on long-term loan to the Guy's and St Thomas' Charity for display at St Thomas' Hospital in Lambeth, London, since 1975. It was designated a Grade II*-listed building in January 2016. The sculpture is the culmination of an idea that Gabo developed from the mid-1920s, to implement the ideas published in his 1920 Realistic Manifesto. He made a series of models and maquettes over the years, including his work of c. 1929 Model for "Torsion", a small 10 centimetres (3.9 in)-high Perspex model; his larger work Torsion from 1929–37, a 35 centimetres (14 in)-high model also in Perspex; and his 1960–64 Torsion (Project for a Fountain), an 80 centimetres (31 in)-high bronze maquette. A commission was suggested by Sir Norman Reid, director of the Tate Gallery, when he saw the models on a visit to Gabo's studio in the United States in 1968. Gabo sent his maquette to London and the full-size sculpture was constructed of several stainless steel plates, creating a stack of intersecting curves, deliberately unadorned and without colour. The sculpture was manufactured in 1972–73 by Stainless Metalcraft Limited of London, paid for by Alistair McAlpine, and then donated to the Tate Gallery. Gabo donated his bronze maquette to the Tate Gallery in 1969, and then donated two plastic models in 1977. The work was installed in 1975 in the centre of a circular pool of water in a square garden at St Thomas' Hospital, with the River Thames to the west and Westminster Bridge Road to the north, and new hospital buildings to the east and south. It is a working fountain, with water emitted in streams from some of the sculpture's curved edges. It was originally designed to rotate slowly, once every 10 minutes, but the mechanism has not worked for several years.