In my posting on the Skylon Tower web site, Adam left a comment about the closed level. I’ve noticed before the level that is closed, but I figured I’d take a picture so you’d know what he was talking about. There are escalators on either side of the tower that go down to the games area. On each side there is also an escalator that goes up to another level. As you can see by the pictures, the level up is boarded up.
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That boarded up portion…
…isn’t that where the little “mall” is located with the souvineer shops, Starbucks, and elevators to the top are located?
…the bottom level is where the large (and sparsely populated) arcade games are, right?
…or am I thinking of another part of the Skylon?
That escalator leads to the convention floor. It’s been boarded up for years now. They only open it if something’s going on up there, and that’s really rare these days.
Just to be clear, the pictures were taken on the main level. If you park in the main parking lot and go in the main doors, that is the level with the shops and where you get on the elevators to go to the top. If you walk around, you’ll see the escalators on either side of the building. On each side are 2 escalators. On the side closest to the main doors, there is an escalator that goes down to the game area, and another escalator that is boarded up (the second picture). On the side furthest from the main entrance, there is an escalator coming up from the game area and another escalator boarded up (the first picture). So you go down into the game area on one side and up from the game area on the other side. I guess that forces you to walk through the place, and perhaps play a few games.
Graham did you also notice they’ve torn out a lot of the main floor shop areas? They’re doing some sort of reconfiguration on the main level but I’m not sure what. The Skylon’s gift shop (Europa) remains but many of the tenants are gone and the spaces they occupied are under construction.
Yes, I noticed that there was one area between the 2 escalators that had been torn out. I’m not sure what used to be in there, but there is a sign there now telling you that there are food outlets downstairs (even though they seem to be closed all week).
I also noticed that they have a new green backdrop for you to get your picture taken. Obviously they superimpose you over the tower or the falls or something. I’ll post some pictures either tomorrow or Monday.
The picture people have been there since the summer. When people queue up for the elevators they’re ambushed by the photographers, their pic is taken usually against the blue screen on the left of the front desk. The green screen I’ve never seen used and that’s the elevator that faces the city, so tourists usually take the two that face the river.
The space between the two escalators was a Chinese gift shop. I’m not sure what’s going in there now.
I’ve been in a couple of times this winter, and there is no blue screen. There is only the green screen right now, and there was a person staffing the area.
Gosh, what a waste of a great location this place is. Haha, I wish I could have he power in making the decision in what goes in there…Id be rich.
That convention floor was used very recently during November and December for the Winter Festival of lights. The festival held their Winter Wishes mascot show up there, starring the Misty Kids (a dog, a cat and a bunny). It was really good. The show ran 3 times every Saturday, and 3 times daily during the Christmas break. They had built a little temporary theatre up there. Unfortunately it wasn’t advertised very well and not a lot of people knew about it.
The reconfiguration you see happening to the shops is actually related to what is happening up on the old convention floor level. That level is being turned into a multi-million dollar, world-class, broadway style theatre. They are actually in the process of lowering the floor (to make the coming theatre taller)… so this means the ceilings will be lower in the shops soon.
Thanks for the information Tyler. Any news on when it will open and what shows will perform there?
I’m not sure about them lowering the floor over the shops.
The convention level floor wraps around the large hole looking down onto the arcade level, but the majority of the space up there is on the Murray Hill side of the buildings. The shop areas are mostly near the front doors of the tower, which has relatively little convention-level floor space overhead. If a theatre is going up there it could only go towards the Hill side (where the Misty Kids show was).
Granted, the floor up on the convention level needs work either way. It has a lot of water damage.
I can tell you guys one thing, the Skylon does not care about their arcade at all. I am a frequent visitor of the Skylon’s arcade. Back in the 80s they had every one of the latest arcade games, and I mean almost all of them, they did a really good job with it, but now it is a shadow of its former self. There is a reason for this though, I believe the person who owned the amusement rides that used to be in the skylon tower basement pre-1999 passed away in 2000. I am assuming he played an instrumental role in bringing the arcade to be what it was back then, however since he passed away maintenance of the arcade has been left to the skylon tower. From what I hear from various sources the skylon tower is in general very cheap.
Since to my current knowledge they still have many of their 80s machines, although not all of them, what they should do is keep those but add a whole bunch of new WORKING machines, I stress the word working, because broken arcade games seem to be something that the entire clifton hill area suffers tremendously from. Definitely not a good idea to remove the old machines, because it is simply amazing that they are still in functioning condition to this day. A good arcade has a large variety of machines both old, new and middle-aged, and different genre’s of games, the skylon definitely has the space to do this. There are still plenty of amazing arcade games being created nowdays believe it or not that parallel the ones that were installed in the skylon tower in the 80’s and 90’s. If they offered something that most arcades do not by installing these new machines that I know about, plus advertise it, they would do much better than they are now, and it would look a whole lot better to the tourists that visit the place, plus restore the arcade to the former glory that it once had.
Pretty much every machine in the marvel arcade is broken to the point of missing buttons and just in general not working as they should. The situation at the great canadian midway is not much better as if you are trying to get your money back that was lost in a broken machine, it could take you a very long time (over 20 min) to locate a staff member. I honestly think these arcades just do not care, as tourists seem to be feeding the machines money even if they do not work properly, and even if they are broken to the point where its completely obvious to the human eye that they are broken. If the tourists feed them money, then why bother fixing them!
I do not want to say much more here, if you want to know more, I ask that Graham, the owner of this post, please contact me, I also have hundreds of photos of the skylon’s arcade over the last 7 years that I am willing to share. Anyone else who posts to this can contact me as well, use the email saraab87@msn.com thanks.
Tyler, why weren’t you at FEO this year?