# Battersea Fun Fair



## spliff (Jan 30, 2012)

Any other oldies remember this? Have any memories to share?

I first went as a child with my Dad, I recall a sign at the Big Dipper entrance suggesting pipe smokers remove their pipes during the ride, I asked my Dad why and he said that because of the speeds achieved a pipe could get lodged in the back of the throat and the person would choke and die. Forever the party pooper was my dad. We didn't go on the ride.

Some years later, about 1971, I went with a bunch of friends whilst being stoned on quality black and had a magnificent time, Big Dipper and all the rest. As I say magnificent.

This youtube video claims to be from 1976 but from what I remember the funfair closed about 1973 after an accident which killed a bunch of kids.



It's pretty good video, well edited. I think.

It would be nice if we had a permanent playground like this again but I reckon it would be crawling with wrong'uns or CCTV.

Sometimes you just can't win.


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## dessiato (Jan 30, 2012)

I remember going but have no recollection of it except that I went to the toilet!


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## spliff (Jan 30, 2012)

In the toilet, or did you do a no-no?


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## boohoo (Jan 30, 2012)

Bit before my time - looks like a good funfair.

Here's an article about the accident.  Looks like you are right about the closure dates.


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## boohoo (Jan 30, 2012)

Footage of big dipper being tested.

Looks like that accident is the worst roller coaster accident ever.


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## Spud Murfy (Jan 30, 2012)

Can't remember going or not, but certainly recall when the accident happened and bad things being said about fairground showmen as a result.


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## TopCat (Jan 30, 2012)

I lived just over the water from the park and remember the fair. I never got to go on it but the remains of the fair were there to amuse for several years after.


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## Spud Murfy (Jan 30, 2012)

TopCat said:


> I lived just over the water from the park and remember the fair. I never got to go on it but the remains of the fair were there to amuse for several years after.



You could have at least nicked all the painted fairground signs, kept them for 30+ years, then sold them to me.


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## TopCat (Jan 30, 2012)

Spud Murfy said:


> You could have at least nicked all the painted fairground signs, kept them for 30+ years, then sold them to me.


I am ashamed to say that we wrecked the remains and threw them in the Thames.


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## tim (Jan 30, 2012)

TopCat said:


> I am ashamed to say that we wrecked the remains and threw them in the Thames.



In that case it is your duty to inform the Thames gloop enthusiasts on the mudlarking thread , so that they can can go along the foreshore and retrieve those remains and then sell them to Spud Murfy.


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## Ponyutd (Jan 31, 2012)

I remember the Big Dipper very well.I went with my dad and brother. The ride itself was scary as hell. I remember my dad asking my brother how he liked the ride as we were going down the steepest bit. My brother swore at my dad he was so scared.

My mum still has the little pictures we did to this day. You put a little piece of card into a cradle which spun round. You then dripped bottled paint onto it to form your own psychedelic painting. Marvellous times.


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## Ponyutd (Jan 31, 2012)

Also as a mudlark, I often 'do' Battersea. I have never found one single thing relating to the fair on the foreshore. Shame.


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## ElizabethofYork (Jan 31, 2012)

I remember going to that funfair when I was very young.  It was the first time I'd ever had candyfloss.


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## spliff (Jan 31, 2012)

Ponyutd said:


> You put a little piece of card into a cradle which spun round. You then dripped bottled paint onto it to form your own psychedelic painting. Marvellous times.


Come in Damien Hurst, your time is up.


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## Ponyutd (Feb 1, 2012)




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## Minnie_the_Minx (Feb 1, 2012)

Never went as wasn't living in London then.  b/f remembers the Water Slide and the Big Dipper.  Also a treetop walk with monsters


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## tim (Feb 1, 2012)

Ponyutd said:


> I remember the Big Dipper very well.I went with my dad and brother. The ride itself was scary as hell. I remember my dad asking my brother how he liked the ride as we were going down the steepest bit. My brother swore at my dad he was so scared.
> 
> My mum still has the little pictures we did to this day. You put a little piece of card into a cradle which spun round. You then dripped bottled paint onto it to form your own psychedelic painting. Marvellous times.



Yes, I think I've still got one of those


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## TopCat (Feb 2, 2012)

Minnie_the_Minx said:


> Never went as wasn't living in London then. b/f remembers the Water Slide and the Big Dipper. Also a treetop walk with monsters


The treetop walk was in existence for much longer than the fun fair. The adventure playground in Battersea park was legendary amongst us local kids. Loads of kids brained themselves, broke legs etc. It was brilliant, a fab way of letting kids find their limits for themselves.


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 3, 2012)

TopCat said:


> The treetop walk was in existence for much longer than the fun fair. The adventure playground in Battersea park was legendary amongst us local kids. Loads of kids brained themselves, broke legs etc. It was brilliant, a fab way of letting kids find their limits for themselves.


 
Last remnants of the treetop walk were finally pulled down in the '90s, IIRC, because some of the riverside trees themselves were knackered.
I fucking loved that adventure playground back in the '70s. I suffered the first of many dislocated arms there, with the inevitable dislocated scapula that made me look a bit like a hunchback! A mate lost his left pinkie on the cart run, and another mate brained herself after coming off a rope swing at the apex of its' arc. Happy childhood days!


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 3, 2012)

Ponyutd said:


> Also as a mudlark, I often 'do' Battersea. I have never found one single thing relating to the fair on the foreshore. Shame.


 
Not surprised really, though. They used to be pretty punctilious about clearing up the mess, from what I remember, and as the pier was still in use, they probably tidied the foreshore too.
Ever tried further up, by the old Swan riverside pub?


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## tracy swift (Feb 12, 2012)

Spud Murfy said:


> You could have at least nicked all the painted fairground signs, kept them for 30+ years, then sold them to me.


Well, I was brought up travelling in the fairground community with family rides, stalls and refreshment kiosks til the age of 11 when Dad bought an amusement arcade and cafe and we settled down, point being he has collected paintings of fairground scenes for years and has a good collection of originals which are very colourful and detailed, including works from Joe Scarborough, a local Sheffield artist, you may be interested in copies if you really are an enthusiast,

personally I regard my former years as proud and abiding of those C of E religious guidance from our fairground reverends, and traditions passed down from generation to generation of families living the travelling Showmens way, with coachbuilt living wagons, trailers, and equipment with that fairground style of gold leaf patterning that our home grown painters are so skillful in displaying on stalls, hooplas and rides, nowadays since I settled in to town housing a lot of the new rides are airbrushed with modern themes,

anyhowz, still love the fairs and consider them a heritage and an important part of the national psyche, playing an active part in this and other countries work and liesure industries, at fetes, galas, races, festivals in parks and towns and fields, you just can't beat the experience....but I digress in happy memories,

anyhowz, let me know if you are interested in copies of the fairground paintings, alas, no old signs or brightly painted remnants saved, only pottery of miniature helter skelters and different rides made for members of The Showmens Guild of Great Britain and distributed as presents at the Guilds annual banquets, limited editions but on show at the Museum in Sheffield University, if you are interested!


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## Mrs Magpie (Feb 13, 2012)

tracy swift is having trouble with the interface here....there's a reported post from her but it's the text she meant to post. I'm going to edit out the two with no text, and add her text to the post where she's quoted.

I'm adding paragraph breaks as well but that's just me and readability


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## Mrs Magpie (Feb 13, 2012)

TopCat said:


> The adventure playground in Battersea park was legendary amongst us local kids.


An amazing bloke called Jumbo (not his real name, iirc his real name was Greek) built a lot of that. He was a legend in Adventure Playground circles. He did a lot at Slade Gardens in Brixton and advised loads of playgrounds on building safe but exciting structures. They uncovered a WWII UXB when they were building the Battersea Park Adventure Playground. The army came in and blew it up....bits of tattered sandbag fluttering from treetops....


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## Ponyutd (Feb 13, 2012)

ViolentPanda said:


> Not surprised really, though. They used to be pretty punctilious about clearing up the mess, from what I remember, and as the pier was still in use, they probably tidied the foreshore too.
> Ever tried further up, by the old Swan riverside pub?


Never been up that way. I tend to stay round Vauxhall way. Lots of stuff coming up last few days because of very low tides. Had a nice Roman coin myself. It's currently soaking in Olive oil to loosen the crud up on it. Probably take a week or more.


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## oryx (Feb 13, 2012)

There was a very good Timeshift documentary on BBC4 tonight about fairgrounds and their history - some great old footage.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012zmy7

I didn't actually recognise any as Battersea but it could well be.


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## xsunnysuex (Feb 19, 2012)

I spent a great deal of my childhood at that fun fair.  My parents used to take me.  My clearest memory is standing watching the big dipper on one side,  and tip the lady out of bed on the other.  Battesea Park was a magic place to me then.  I remember the parades they used to have.  I went back last summer for the first time in years.  Was quite sad to see what it's become.


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## ViolentPanda (Feb 20, 2012)

xsunnysuex said:


> I spent a great deal of my childhood at that fun fair. My parents used to take me. My clearest memory is standing watching the big dipper on one side, and tip the lady out of bed on the other. Battesea Park was a magic place to me then. I remember the parades they used to have. I went back last summer for the first time in years. Was quite sad to see what it's become.


 
It's all very orderly now, very inoffensive except for the canada geese.


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## totalarsewipe (Jun 16, 2012)

I remember my old mother taking us in the late fifties and meeting Freddie Mills (the british boxer)
and getting his autograph.  Then he punched us out.  It was well wicked.   Remember the  Rotor where you stuck to the walls.  Well fuckin' iffy that was.


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## RoyReed (Jun 16, 2012)

totalarsewipe said:


> I remember my old mother taking us in the late fifties and meeting Freddie Mills (the british boxer)
> and getting his autograph. Then he punched us out. It was well wicked. Remember the Rotor where you stuck to the walls. Well fuckin' iffy that was.


Freddie Mills used to be our milkman back in the fifties. He worked on a round delivering milk around the top of Brixton Hill/Upper Tulse Hill area. Before she died my mum told me that he gave me a friendly punch one time, but misjudged it and knocked me flying.

I remember my Gran going on the water slide and getting soaked and my Dad going on the big dipper. I loved the treetop walkway. This must have been about 1958 when I was six.


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## ex harry gray (Jan 12, 2013)

i worked at battersea funfair for harry gray up till it closed then moved to southend on sea with harry's sons henry and harry jrn, pat o'neill also moveed to s o s,
great times had at battersea and was gutted when it closed, i got paid £14 a week and always got paid on a monday night, the reason for being paid on a monday i was told
that in harry's travelling days pull down was on a sat night, move sunday and start bulding up and finish it on a monday, if the men got paid on a sunday they would have it on
there toes before pull down, now aged 55 and still miss it like mad. regards dave


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## Jean Barber (Jan 24, 2013)

ex harry gray said:


> i worked at battersea funfair for harry gray up till it closed then moved to southend on sea with harry's sons henry and harry jrn, pat o'neill also moveed to s o s,
> great times had at battersea and was gutted when it closed, i got paid £14 a week and always got paid on a monday night, the reason for being paid on a monday i was told
> that in harry's travelling days pull down was on a sat night, move sunday and start bulding up and finish it on a monday, if the men got paid on a sunday they would have it on
> there toes before pull down, now aged 55 and still miss it like mad. regards dave





ex harry gray said:


> i worked at battersea funfair for harry gray up till it closed then moved to southend on sea with harry's sons henry and harry jrn, pat o'neill also moveed to s o s,
> great times had at battersea and was gutted when it closed, i got paid £14 a week and always got paid on a monday night, the reason for being paid on a monday i was told
> that in harry's travelling days pull down was on a sat night, move sunday and start bulding up and finish it on a monday, if the men got paid on a sunday they would have it on
> there toes before pull down, now aged 55 and still miss it like mad. regards dave


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## Jean Barber (Jan 24, 2013)

My Friend Lorraine and I worked for Mr. Gee who own the candy floss shop and we worked in their kiosks.  We worked for Phyllis on the Archery and the duck stalls.  Happy Days, were had there and staff rides on the Big Dipper were many!  I worked for the O'Neils on one of the kiddie rides they had and was there the day of the accident when 5 people were killed my broyfriend at the time was driving the dipper that day - he survived.  I was born very near to Albert Bridge in Anhalt Road, would never be able to afford one of those houses! but great and happy times.


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## oryx (Jan 24, 2013)

Jean Barber said:


> My Friend Lorraine and I worked for Mr. Gee who own the candy floss shop and we worked in their kiosks. We worked for Phyllis on the Archery and the duck stalls. Happy Days, were had there and staff rides on the Big Dipper were many! I worked for the O'Neils on one of the kiddie rides they had and was there the day of the accident when 5 people were killed my broyfriend at the time was driving the dipper that day - he survived. I was born very near to Albert Bridge in Anhalt Road, would never be able to afford one of those houses! but great and happy times.


 
I remember seeing the accident on the news when I was a kid living up north and it was the first time I'd ever heard of Battersea. I never dreamed I would live there for over 20 years!


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## cybertect (Jan 25, 2013)

The fair makes a few appearances on the big screen. 

ITV were showing the 1963 comedy 'The Wrong Arm of the Law' last weekend, in which Peter Sellers sets up a meeting of London criminal bosses with senior officers from the Yard, riding on the Big Dipper and merry-go-round.

It also featured in two 1961 flicks: 'The Day The Earth Caught Fire' (one of the best British Sci-Fi movies IMO) and the British answer to Godzilla, 'Gorgo'

http://blackholereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2006/11/gorgo-1961-new-japanese-dvd-release.html?m=1


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## davesgcr (Jan 26, 2013)

I was taken as a youngster circa 1963 or so - don't remember the fair - but do the aerial walkway (must have made a huge impression , - that plus the bus ride from N7)


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