Sixty years after first becoming involved in seaside arcade operating, Harry Symonds is stepping down after selling his Deluxe Amusement Centre on Hastings seafront in the UK.
The well-known industry character has invested millions into the resort’s infrastructure and is a highly respected member of both his local community and the industry, reports the local press.
Symonds started his arcade business in 1960 and since then he has been involved in many development projects on the seafront. He took over what is new the Deluxe Amusement Centre in 1969 when he was only 30 years old and when it was a derelict former cinema. He installed a snooker club on the first floor which over the years was to prove a venue for famous names from the sport, including Hurrican Higgins and Steve Davis.
A former vice-chairman of one of the Bacta divisions and an active worker for charities, Symonds is quoted in Sussex World: “It has been hard to get it right all of the time, but the thing is to keep moving forward, working things out in my mind until I get it right.”
He came from showland stock but went to boarding school when he was young, while his home was in Sheerness where his father had an arcade. When his father died, he sold off that business and moved to Hastings with his wife, Anne, where his father owned Harry’s Old Time Bingo.
Among the businesses Harry started in the town the Out of this World children’s complex and the Olympia arcade. In 1997, he bought the Stade amusements and boating lake which is now a family fun park.
