In case you didn’t know it, County Hall was home to the GLC or Greater London Council, a high level government administrative entity covering the Greater London area from 1965 to 1986. After they left, the building was empty for many years until a Japanese buyer stepped in. I heard that the initial plan was to turn the place into a luxury hotel, a not too unreasonable idea considering the excellent location near Big Ben and its adjacent parliament buildings running along the scenic river Thames, which would be of interest to tourists.
However, for one reason or another, County Hall was used to house three separate attractions and not a classy hotel for visitors to enjoy while taking in the sights and sounds of Westminster and nearby Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus. Funnily enough, a recent newspaper article did mention the Japanese owner’s intention of handing some of the vacant space inside the building over to the next mayor of London after the elections in May. The mind boggles as to what this could mean for Namco Station. For now however it remains in operation alongside a McDonalds and the London Aquarium.
My attention was drawn to the arcade after seeing its name emblazoned onto a Namco token whilst at the Wonderpark in Piccadilly Circus. One side of the token had a picture of County Hall, flipping it over revealed the wording ‘Namco Station’. It was the summer of 1998 and Namco Wonderpark was providing plenty of state of the art video gaming entertainment so there was no urgency on my part to seek out Namco Station. It was probably later that year when I finally decided to venture over to County Hall, located a short walk from Westminster station.
What I found was an arcade inside a very grand and ornate building with high ceilings and classic architecture from the Edwardian era. It was a strange feeling then to find this resplendent location juxtaposed with modern gaming and its audio-visual spectacle displayed on outrageously designed hardware. The once corridors of power in the capital city of England where significant and shaping decisions effecting millions on Londoners were debated and pushed through were now home to entertainment ranging from a bowling alley to multi-player Daytona USA! How times have changed, but maybe it’s for the better that this grand and beautiful old building now focus on leisure rather than political activities.
I have managed to visit Namco Station on a couple of occasions so can now gauge its look a feel a bit better. There are three floors in total. The entrance to the arcade is just a few meters from and directly in front of the main entrance to County Hall. Curiously, there is no prominent advertising to let visitors know that there’s an arcade here, just two small flags with ‘N’ on them to signify the Namco logo, placed outside the doorway to County Hall itself.
The ground floor is a small section which shows off some of the newer or larger deluxe games. For example, you can find a full scale RidgeRacer here, a rare find and usually attracting a healthy audience of spectators. Other memorable games on display include Namco’s fast paced adrenalin rush of a shooter that is Crisis Zone and the equally tension ridden and excellent Silent Scope by Konami.
An escalator then takes you down to the basement where you’re initially met by a staff counter and booth where prizes are available in exchange for tickets from some of the ticket based games. The main arcade floor is to the left of the down escalator and is a large circular affair with a dodgem cart arena in the middle that makes a fair old ding of a noise. I think this used to be one of the parliamentary debating areas back in the day as it is quite a large space. However, in the year 2000 it’s a fighting game utopia with lots of current and popular titles running inside large screen cabinets. This strong showing is spearheaded by Namco’s Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament and Soul Calibur.
Tekken Tag is actually running on a number of smaller Namco Cyber Lead branded cabinets linked up for competitive play, a bit like what you might find with a Sega Versus City back to back cabinet setup where each player has there own screen and control deck. Speaking of Sega, the only fighting game to feature from them is Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle Edition which is quite a find in itself as this is the little seen 1997 update to the main game riding the crest of the popularity wave for team battle games made fashionable by SNK and the wonderful King of Fighters series and not to mention the string of Capcom versus games. The strangest aspect about this is that the Team Battle edition has never shown up at any Sega branded arcade but rather in Namco Arcades, first at the Wonderpark in late 1997 and now at Namco Station.
Continuing with the fighting game theme and a gallery of Capcom gems are found aplenty. Street Fighter 3 Third Strike gets the show started with a number of versus titles and of course the quire popular Alpha 3. Not to be outdone, SNK puts in a respectable appearance with its King of Fighters series with versions, 96, 97, 98 and 99 all available to play. I believe these are running on the four 'Neo 50' large projection screen cabinets that used to grace the basement of the now sadly closed Wonderpark. In fact, I think quite a few of the games and cabinets were transferred over from there after it shut down and are now available for play at Namco Station.
If you don’t fancy playing any fighting games, then there are plenty of competitive racers here beginning with a deluxe 4 player Sega Daytona USA. This is complemented by Sega Rally and the quirky Pocket Racer from Namco. The technical marvel that is a three screen Airline Pilots is also here although perhaps due to its left field gameplay doesn’t seem to get much attention apart from the customary curious glance or wander around the cabinet from passers by. Virtua Striker however is very much in fashion with a number of versions playable on the large Sega Mega Lo cabinets and this is a fairly popular game attracting groups of players taking each other on.
All these games are generously spaced out and placed along the circumference of the circular room so that some of them are lined up against the walls and others are placed around the central dodgem arena. If you walk back towards and past the prizes booth near the escalator, or alternatively if you turn right at the foot of the escalator, then you’ll find a staircase but also another nearby escalator that takes you to the lower basement section.
This area is split between a licensed bar, pool hall, a bowling alley and more games. The bar is for the adults, so access is restricted, they have all the modern conveniences including satellite television and live sports showing throughout the day and night. A pool hall nearby has some very nice full size American pool tables with a memorising deep purple cloth and the bowling alley is next to this and has twelve full size lanes.
The final set of games available for play are in a small section near the stairs just before the bar. I recall a Sega Scud Race and Sega Rally inside twin cabinets here together with Virtua Striker 2, Tekken 3 and another Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle. Additionally some fruit machines are just a few steps away and another prizes booth.
In all, Namco Station seems to be in the traditional guise of an arcade with its darkly lit rooms and alcoves. Its appearance and atmosphere has more in common with the old Funland arcade in the Trocadero at Piccadilly Circus than it does with the now closed SegaWorld at the same location or the excellent Wonderpark. The booming stereo system on the main basement floor can get a bit too loud though and especially so when the dodgems are in use, drowning out the sounds from the games themselves which is what I’d rather be listening to.
On the last few visits Namco Station appears a bit downbeat and subdued for some reason. All I’ve noticed are a dozen or so visitors with no interest in playing the games themselves but rather congregating in the basement bar. Maybe it’s the time of year and things will probably pick up later on and when summer and tourist season are in full swing. Another factor could be its location, although a hub for tourists it is a bit out of the way for gamers when most of the arcade action is concentrated near Tottenham Court Road and Piccadilly Circus, Namco Station can only be reached from here after a tube ride and a walk from either Waterloo or Westminster stations.
Another more ominous sign for the lacklustre visitors inside the arcade might be due to the fact console gaming is very much in vogue with the Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2 providing plenty of interactive entertainment in the comfort of your home. They have definitely caught up as far as the audio and visual presentation goes and in some case even surpass what’s on offer in an arcade. The rumoured games system from Microsoft could well set the stakes even higher as it is supposed to take online gaming to the next level thereby allowing all sorts of competitive gaming to be realised.
An honourable mention should be made at this stage about two aspects that are quite refreshing to find in an arcade. First and foremost, the games are for the most part in good working order. The condition of the controls, whether joysticks, buttons or steering wheels, on the games I played, worked really well. A case in point was the Virtua Fighter 3 Team Battle that has clearly had the sticks and buttons replaced, although not exact replicas they were close enough to ‘Sanwa’ branded parts and remained tactile and responsive.
The second stand out factor is the price of play. Namco Station averages 50p a credit on most of its games and uses the token system originally tested and found to be a great success at the Wonderpark. Every £5 gets you 12 tokens with each token being the equivalent of 50p, so, you get two extra credits of play time in exchange for your fiver. This is pretty good value and only rivalled by Casino Leisure in Tottenham Court Road.
In summary, Namco Station is actually a very good arcade offering a wide variety of entertainment from videogames, to bowling and pool. It might be a bit out of the way but it is worth travelling to as you won’t be disappointed by what’s on offer. Along with Funland, this is the only other large scale arcade or ‘family entertainment centre’, as the coin-op press now likes to refer to them, which remains in London. As long as the games are updated and maintained there’s no reason why it can’t go on to thrive for years to come.
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