I am Graham Asker, a British artist and retired chartered engineer. I came to love pinball machines from a early age. As with many children of my generation a summer holiday was the only chance to play games machines.  The highlight of my annual summer holiday with my parents and grandparents was visiting the amusement arcade on Hastings pier.  As a student in the 1960’s I played pinball machines in coffee bars in North London and in the 1970’s when pinball machines were dying out in England, I played them on my annual holiday in the coffee shops and bars of Northern France.

In the 1990’s I regularly played on three vintage machines that had somehow survived in a dark corner of a seafront amusement arcade, Clarence Pier, Southsea.  (South coast of England).  As an art student in the 2000’s I knew of two East End pubs where I could play pinball, sadly those machines have now been removed. 

However, recently I have come across pinball machines being included in a couple of refurbished London bars. This is great to see.