Seven years after closing his last arcade on the Isle of Man, Arnold Petter passed away at the age of 84 this morning.
Coming from a family of arcade owners on the island, at one time he owned 11 arcades in Douglas, the island’s capital. However, Petter began to close down his locations as Douglas, and the Isle of Man generally, began to wind down its tourism-oriented industry in favour of finance.
His last arcade was the Leisure Inn, on Strand Street, which was closed down and the property sold off in August of 2012.
Arnold started in the industry at the age of just 12, working in his father’s arcade, Funland, and in the White City amusement complex at Onchan Head on the island.
“My uncle had quite a big amusement arcade in Haymarket, London, before the Second World War and my father had two places in Manchester, one on Oxford Street and one on Deansgate,” he told reporters in 2012.
"In the war days, my parents operated an amusement arcade in Blackpool, coming backwards and forwards to see my brother and I in the Isle of Man."
From them, he said he had learned the value of money, business instinct, and being "street-wise."
Pictured: Petter in 2012 holding a photograph of the last of his Manx arcades.
