York: Old Penny Lane, museum of Victorian arcades, opens in Feasegate

Old Penny Lane Family Entertainment Centre opened in Feasegate on Monday, April 10. 

It has a huge collection of rare and one of a kind antique amusement machines from the last two centuries - and they still work.

The gypsy and the sheikh fortune tellers (Image: Newsquest)

The vast collection includes two fortune teller machines, one a sheikh from the 1930s and another a gypsy.

There are 130-year-old coin grinders, in which you turn the handle to flip 600 pages depicting a scene from a silent film. 

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And there are a number of machines showing figurines acting out a scene once a coin is slotted in.

One of the machines is a generating station - the only one of its kind in the world, and dates back to 1927. There is also a spiritualist machine, similar to one in the Kirkgate street at the York Castle Museum.

The coin grinders (Image: Newsquest)

There is a doll which spins around once a coin is slotted in, which is thought to date back to 1910, and there are a number of pinball and other gaming machines, some allowing you to win sweets.

The machines come to life by inserting an original one penny coin, and customers can borrow 15 old pennies for £3.

Old Penny Lane (Image: Newsquest)

Bob Hanley, who has moved to York from Cheshire to open the centre, has been collecting the machines for more than 30 years from specialist auctions and friends from up and down the country.

He said: "They’re very hard to find because they’re so rare and a lot of people want to collect them.

"Back then there was no TV or internet, many had never even seen a film before, and so they would have been amazed by these machines.

The machines are operated by old pennies (Image: Newsquest)

“I’ve done a pop up in Liverpool but I wouldn’t have brought it anywhere else other than York. York is a historic town so it fits in here, and that’s why I wanted to be in the city centre."

Bob says the the centre is not for gambling, rather it is for customers of all ages to come and enjoy playing with the machines the way they would have been enjoyed in their heyday.

Gaming arcade machines (Image: Newsquest)

It is the second museum of its kind in York - there was formerly a Museum of Automata, which closed in 1996.

In the future Bob plans to include signs next to each machine with an explanation of its history and background.