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The dodgems

Fun on the dodgems!
Photo by Tony Tree

Comments about this page

  • I remember these dodgems. I was put into one of these by a clueless uncle and sent off round the track – I was only about seven years old and could not see over the steering wheel. Alas I crashed the car and smashed my face on the steering wheel. Uncle took me home with a bloody face and Mum went mad at him!  He never took me out again – I wonder why….

    By David Maynard (25/01/2007)
  • Looking at the photo, it looks more like the electric speedway that used to be on the front during the summer months just before you got the Volks Railway.

    By John Wignall (19/08/2007)
  • I’d love to see the old cars, where the Concorde is now. My brother and I used to get free rides.

    By Bridget (24/09/2007)
  • Loved seeing the dodgems. There seemed to be two ways to view these cars. In my mind dodgems meant how to drive the track without bumping into one another. In other words, to dodge. Other people called them ‘bumper cars’ with the sole purpose to BUMP you. This led to lots of aches and pains and not much technique, alas.

    By Sandra (08/12/2008)
  • This is not the dodgems, this ride is the Brookland’s Speedway.

    By Peter Hoult (27/02/2009)
  • Judging by the style of dress, I would say that this photo was taken long before Brookland’s Park in Lancing existed. This definitely looks, to me, like the dodgems that were located just after the entrance to the West Pier in Brighton.

    By Alan Phillips (28/02/2009)
  • I agree…these are Dodgem, but are almost definitely the cars on the West Pier! In the late 80s, I spent most of my pocket money on them!

    By Howard Berman (23/06/2009)
  • I must have been tired yesterday. What I meant to write was that these were not dodgems, but low speed racing cars! Without the benefits of time travel, my pocket money was spent in the late 1960s, not the late 1980s.

    By Howard Berman (24/06/2009)
  • These cars are not the ones that ran on the West Pier as they were petrol driven. If my memory serves me rightly these were the cars which ran on the electric speedway just before you got to Volks Railway.

    By John Wignall (31/10/2009)
  • The cars on the West Pier were electric when I used to use them. The go-carts at Peter Pan’s Playgound were petrol driven.

    By Alan Phillips (10/12/2009)
  • I also had a crash on the bumpers, splitting my lip. Still got back on though.

    By Duffy Watkins (04/02/2011)
  • They are where the crazy golf is now just east of the Palace Pier. The power was DC current and was converted with huge rectifiers under the pavement. The guy who ran it would always say “Put Your Foot On The Pedal And Turn The Wheel”.

    By Richard Pearce (19/02/2011)
  • I have ust noticed my photograph on the site. I took this in the early sixties and it is indeed the site by the Volk’s Railway.

    By Tony Tree (24/09/2011)
  • Dead right Richard, I worked there for 5 yrs p/t it took ages to start up the generators. It was good fun 1 shilling for 1 person 1 shilling and sixpence for two in the car. Underneath where the generators were, was the old boating lake which went underneath the esplanade.

    By Jim Haughton (20/03/2013)

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