Description:
Black and White photograph of John Ayers’ Lighthouse Slip, otherwise known as a Helter-Skelter, on the Stonebow car park in 1962. This car park (now built on) along Commercial Road also served as a fairground after the three customary days of the May Fair, with some tenants from elsewhere in the city erecting their amusements there after their colleagues had moved on to other fairs following the close of business on the Thursday night. There they would open for business on the Friday and Saturday of the May Fair week, a practice that had been going on from before the Second World War. Mr Ayers’ Helter-Skelter was a product of the Supercar Company Limited of Warwick and had been built using aluminium, a material that was freely available following the Second World War.
(Additional historic information provided by Graham Downie, Chairman, The Fairground Association of Great Britain, Member of the National Fairground & Circus Advisory Committee, The University of Sheffield)
