Update []: Peter "Nostalgia Nerd" Leigh has gotten in touch to clarify some of the points raised in this piece:
Where did the Kickstarter money go? Into the business, as per the Kickstarter page intentions, along with a whole load of other money. Business is expensive.
Did the staff get paid? Yes. For every single shift. Right until the last day.
Are people waiting for rewards? All rewards were sent, plus a final call was put out last year just in case anyone hadn't received theirs. Anyone who is still missing something, please email me.
Did I delete "negative comments? If you mean, did I block some obsessive weirdos from projecting onto my social accounts every single day being personally derogatory about me and my audience? Yes. Absolutely.
In the same way, I also wouldn't invite these folks into my house for a "chat".
Was it a vanity project? I'm not sure you could count mopping up piles of vomit on a regular basis, and shouting at people for punching Mortal Kombat, a vanity project, but whatever you want to push?
Leigh also tells Time Extension that he is preparing a more detailed postmortem on the whole Barcadia project, and has expressed interest in speaking to us about the venture in the future.
Original Story: The Norwich-based arcade bar run by retro gaming YouTube Peter "Nostalgia Nerd" Leigh has closed, it has been confirmed.
Barcadia launched in 2023 via a crowdfunding campaign, aiming to offer a range of "nostalgia provoking machines", "delicious" cocktails and "retro snack baskets", according to the venue's official site. "There is no entry cost, we’re just a bar with games and cool sh*t." The campaign raised £27,781 from 381 backers.
After a prolonged period of closure, it has been confirmed that the building is now back on the market and the Barcadia dream is over.
Leigh posted a statement to backers on Barcadia's Kickstarter page in May, claiming that "we’ve concluded that in its current format & setting, Barcadia unfortunately just wasn’t viable."
Leigh adds:
It became painfully obvious by six months in, that the venue was going to struggle, but given our priority was always a community space over profit, we hoped to press on and get to a place where it could at least sustain itself. Every single avenue was explored, but despite continuing to put as much into it as we could, financially, physically and mentally, the arrangement with our landlords and providers meant our costs were increasing and the margins in hospitality which were already incredibly tight, were just getting tighter and tighter, meaning something had to give.
He adds that a revamp and relaunch were planned for this year, "but sadly, the resources and ultimately, market, were just not there."
Leigh also says he's sad that the venue couldn't have remained open long enough "for every one of our backers to visit," and adds that, from a personal perspective, "it’s been one hell of a journey; I genuinely poured my heart and soul into it, spent many hours both behind and in front of the bar, chatting to some of you folks, trying out new events, testing new menus, new machines, cleaning up vomit and serving some killer cocktails. I wouldn’t change a thing."
The statement ends with a plea for people to support local independent businesses. "There [has] been a huge swathe of retro arcades dying around the UK. Unless you’re a huge chain, it’s a tough world out there. So, if you’ve got something independent and local to you, and that you cherish, remember to give them some love."
There has been some discontent in the retro community about the collapse of the bar. "No explanation as to where the £25k of backer's money disappeared to," says Paul Metcalfe on social media. "HMRC still waiting for the final accounts. The vanity project has predictably failed." Several other social media messages – which we were unable to verify – claim that Barcadia staff were unpaid at the time the venue closed [Update: Leigh himself has refuted this claim].
Back in May, Leigh appeared to react angrily to a social media post which suggested he was deleting negative comments relating to Barcadia from its social channels. In the same chain of messages, Barcadia backer @byte_tripper claimed that three of their friends were still waiting for backer rewards.