08/08/2026
How lovely 🥰
A Proper Southport Day Out With Silcock’s 🎠🍦🕹️
If you’re heading into Southport and want that proper old-school seaside mix of arcades, carousel rides, fish and chips and ice cream, Silcock’s has built a whole little entertainment world around the Pier entrance and Nevill Street. 🌊
At the entrance to Southport Pier is Silcock’s Funland, an all-weather family amusement centre open throughout the year. Inside are children’s rides, ticket games, video games and other arcade favourites, with a separate over-18s gaming area as well. 🎟️
Ticket games are the modern version of the old fairground “win a prize” idea: play the game, collect tickets, then exchange them for prizes. Elsewhere across Silcock’s Southport amusements you’ll also find crane machines, coin pushers, pool tables, retro slots and other classic arcade-style games. 🕹️
Outside Funland sits the Golden Gallopers, Silcock’s beautifully restored traditional horse carousel. Built around the turn of the twentieth century, it gives that whole Pier Forecourt area a proper old British fairground feel rather than making everything about flashing modern machines. 🎠
Food is a big part of the experience too. Inside Funland there is a family snack bar serving things including pizza, chicken tenders, nachos, loaded fries, jacket potatoes and hot and cold drinks. 🍕
Then there is the Pier Restaurant, serving traditional fish and chips and other seaside favourites. Its Balcony Bar looks across the Marine Lake, King’s Gardens and Southport Pier, while the neighbouring shop sells ice cream, popcorn, candy floss, doughnuts, sweets and Southport Pier rock. 🍟
A short walk towards Nevill Street brings you into another cluster of Silcock businesses. The Embassy Restaurant serves traditional fish and chips, snacks and drinks, while Silcock’s says its restaurants use cod or haddock sourced directly through Fleetwood. 🐟
Nevill Street is also where you’ll find Flavours Ice Cream Parlour, and this is one part of the business we really like. Their artisan ice cream is made fresh on site using Italian flavour ingredients alongside milk supplied from local farms through Southport’s Bates Dairy. 🍦
There are more than 30 flavours, including classics such as strawberry, raspberry ripple and rum and raisin alongside Belgian chocolate, honeycomb, Biscoff, Nutella, mango and passion fruit, blood orange sorbet and plenty more. They also serve sundaes including Knickerbocker Glories and banana splits. 🍨
That local supply chain deserves a mention. It would have been easy enough to buy in a generic seaside ice cream product, but Silcock’s has instead combined Italian gelato know-how with milk supplied through another established Southport business and local farms. Supporting local businesses with other local businesses is exactly the sort of thing we like to see. 🥛
For me, this little stretch of Southport has always had a proper sense of arrival about it. The arcades, Nevill Street, Queen Victoria, the Pier entrance and all the noise and colour around you, it is that familiar British seaside atmosphere that generations have grown up with. 👣
And that is probably the biggest appeal. You can have brand-new games and modern machines, but people still want the traditional things as well: a carousel ride, a few goes on the pushers, an ice cream, fish and chips and a wander towards the sea. 🎡
Silcock’s has managed to keep both sides alive. The old fairground tradition is still there, but it now sits alongside modern arcades, family food, restaurants and fresh gelato. That makes it an easy stop whether you are taking children out, reliving old memories or simply fancying a proper seaside afternoon. 🌅
One question for this one: what’s your favourite ice cream flavour? 🍦
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