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If you are a dedicated fan of online slots, I am sure you would love to visit a museum housing the biggest penny slot machines in the world. Although we live in a world of gadgets now, this museum is a dream for true old-fashioned slot machine lovers, taking you back in time and making you feel like you are in the 1950s again.
Museum’s History
John Hayward and Clive Baker have been collecting slot machines since they were young and put together a museum by 1979. They set up their first museum building in Birnbeck Pier at Weston-Super-Mare. However, poor visitor turnout compelled them to move the museum to a more popular location at Brighton Pier, Pierhead’s Theatre.
Later in the 1980s, the owners of the pier started a redevelopment program, which involved demolishing the theatre. For that reason, Hayward and Baker moved their museum again to the Seafront. There, they changed the name of the museum to “The Old Penny Palace.”
The Conspiracy of Two National Museums
When the slot machine museum shifted to Southport, another museum called NMPSM also shifted there, causing confusion.
John and Clive parted ways and their collections as well, for unknown reasons. Speculation is that John stayed in Brighton and Clive moved to Southport. In this case, Southport kept the name “fork”. You still know that museum as The National Museum of Penny Slot Machines. The Brighton location kept changing names over time.
Southport “Fork”
Clive managed to increase the number of machines at the museum to 100. However, after some time, another company took over the museum, splitting up the collection into three batches, dividing the machines between the Milestone Museum in Basingstoke, South Sea in Portsmouth, and thirty-five machines at the North Pier in Blackpool.
More about Clive Baker and the Penny Slot Machine Palace
Most collectors hide away their collections in a basement and keep them private. However, Clive Baker is an exception and loves to show off his collection to the world. In fact, he enjoys it and makes money from it.
He believes that people should love slot machines. And you should not hide them in the back of your closet. His museum houses more than 100 working slot machines, which you can enjoy, any day of the year. Currently, his slot machine collection is the largest in the country.
The attraction stays open all year long, receiving around 1500 visitors on a busy day. The collection includes some machines manufactured in the 19th century. In other words, the museum is home to some of the oldest and most important slot machines.
His collection includes the first-ever English gambling machine, known as “The Pickwick”. Clive claims the model in his museum is the only one in the world. You can find Monkey Climb ranking games in his collection from the 1920s.
The collection also features six Mutoscopes, among the first motion picture devices ever invented, with slightly risque content. Parents need not worry, as the museum does not allow children access to the Mutoscopes. The prized jewel at the museum is their refurbished Hawkins Hand Grabber from the early 1920s, with the original metal hand.
This cool machine gives out prizes like football games, in which the players wear original hand knitted jerseys and Tram Race.