Holborn is an area of London I know rather well. My university was on Kingsway and six years after graduating my friends and I suffer from a form of Stockholm Syndrome when making plans and inevitably arrange to meet “at 7pm outside Holborn Station?”. A new addition to the area now known as “mid-town” (you are not Manhattan) is Novelty Automation, a five minute walk north from the aforementioned station.

Novelty Automation feels like a cross between the terrible arcade games I loved as a child while visiting family in Brighton and the Pinball Hall of Fame which was one of my Las Vegas highlights. Entry is free but to play any of the games tokens are required – if like me you never carry cash then the minimum card payment is £8 which gives you the optimal amount of tokens to enjoy the machines. Follow them on Twitter and send them an email and a free token will be yours.

I tried my hand at being a paparazzi drone photographer, operated a nuclear reactor and spun particles through a Small Hadron Collider. The games have a kitchsy-retro feel to them but are actually recent-ish home made endeavours. The Expressive Photo Booth is definitely worth three of your tokens and I’m so glad I didn’t let the fact that I’d just done a yoga class and wasn’t wearing make-up put me off. The sense of humour is very British – this is probably where Mark from Peep Show would take a girl on a date.

I left with some edible nuclear waste, a Nobel prize and a smile on my face as I headed out into the October drizzle. Novelty Automation is open Wednesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm and has a late night opening on the first Thursday of every month (put 3rd November in the diary) complete with a bar until 9.30pm. I’m sure that brings a whole new dimension to the “Auto Frisk” machine…

Novelty Automation1a Princeton Street 
Directions here