Category: History

  Our past Victorian Funfairs part our our heritage Funfairs over the last 200 years, steeped in history.

Lovely to see David Walliam’s Travelling Showmen’s heritage on Who do you think you are? You can watch it on the BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000npqt/who-do-you-think-you-are-series-17-2-david-walliams  

“What a Party” This was in Olympia Exhibition Hall on Fri 22 Dec 1967 as I was there with Dad who supplied the Funfair. On the day of the event unfortunately there was a bus strike so very few members of the public actually turned up to the event. But it turned into a massive […]

As most local people are aware, we have been attending Crystal Palace with our annual funfairs now since the 1940s so we have actually been involved in fairs here longer than the Crystal Palace was actually on site. As a mark of respect to the former Palace, a number of years ago we were asked […]

  Irvin Leisure are thrilled to have introduced a superb new, but very old, children’s car ride the Austin Cars, and here we show some magnificent photos of this ride, sitting proudly in the winter snow, and then placed in front of the iconic Olympic Stadium in QE2 Park in Stratford.   This ride is […]

AUSTIN J 40 It was in 1943 that Parliament passed an act that recognised that many miners were been struck down with what the miners called “The Dust” (pneumoconiosis’s). The Government decided to encourage employers to give ex-miners employment. Leonard Lord had taken this to heart and decided that those (in this case South Wales […]

To followers of the Irvin history, George’s cousin Henry Chipperfield recently sent us an image of his Helter Skelter at Edinburgh. We have probably had more Lighthouse Helter Skelters in our family than most others going back several generations. All this started from William Irvin who had four brothers, one went to Scotland which is […]

As you will know, the First World War started 100 years ago and this is a time when we all look back and think of those brave soldiers who went to war to help create our future. Millions from many countries did not return and their sacrifice, and that of their families, is something we […]

We love to see famous people visiting our fairs, and in the news stories on these pages you will find photos of lots of them including models, the odd Prime Minister (sorry, we do not mean the Prime Minister is odd but we hope you understand), pop stars, X Factor contestants (as opposed to pop […]

  From time to time I wonder if anyone ever reads our website, and then we hear from people who have indeed done so and found something out that excites them! One such occasion was when we heard from Australia about Mary Ann Wright who is shown on the Irvin Family history stories on this […]