10 Amazing Arcades You Can Visit Today

Tucked into the Whitgift Centre of Croydon in southern London sits The Heart of Gaming, an arcade established in 2013 by lovers of the culture. The site gathers a plethora of salvaged and restored arcade machines picked up from defunct arcades across London into one amazing establishment.

Whitgift Centre isn't the original location so if you're familiar with the spot in North Acton, it moved on from there after a robbery in 2015 left the arcade missing more than £5,000 of stolen equipment. A subsequent GoFGundMe recouped the losses and the arcade has moved on to Croydon.

Getting into the arcade means all the games are available for play with a relatively simple pricing system. Drop a £10 note for a day pass, or, if you know you can only hang out for an hour, you can play for £5 and have access to every game in the place.

In many ways, The Heart of Gaming is a love letter to a bygone era as it has consolidated many of its machines from other arcades which used to operate around London. As those venues have closed, their systems have found a new home, which means this site features just about any game you may have enjoyed playing in an arcade over the previous few decades.