By Desmond Fitzgerald
As hurricane level winds and lashing rain swept across much of Britain over the New Year, London braced Itself for storms from the West. But In the event, the showmen across the capital had special arrangements In place to carry on entertaining record crowds at various location In the lead up to the end of the year celebrations.
In leicester Square, the fair presented by Bob Wilson Funfairs was at its seasonal best, with the renewed layout established In recent years proving as popular as ever, but with a surprise addition.
A foretaste of what was possibly to come weatherwise reared its ugly head even as the fair was building up a couple of weeks earlier. The Wilsons had made special arrangements to bring In their latest attraction - their KMG booster appropriately named Stann into Leicester Square for the first time.

This was installed at the Southern end of the historic Square as an addition to the family event.
However, even as the delicate process of assembling this and the other four adult and many other attractions was under way, a mini tornado struck the city, destroying homes in its wake in the suburbs.
The fair nevertheless opened on schedule and since December 8 has seen a strong attendance, given the distraction of the Christmas and sales shopping rush that has gripped the nation.
The efforts to bring the new attraction to central London and to take the excitement of the Leicester Square fair to new heights literally at 140 feet into the air and dwarfing the surrounding entertainment emporiums
was not lost on Councillor Alexander Nicoll, the Lord Mayor of Westminster.

In a spectacular opening event that included Las Vegas style showgirls,

the funky Feathers, as well as a strong contingent of councillors, the Reverend Dr John Tudor and family and the Town Crier to the City of
Westminster, Peter Moore, the Lord Mayor praised the work of Willie and Emily Wilson of Bob Wilson Funfairs, who had brought the entertainment for the last 20 years to this special location.
David Barnes, who has been closely associated with this event and life in the City of Westminster for many years and who was III, was sadly missed by those present at the event.

Both locals and tourists alike flocked to the attractions daily, with special arrangements in place for New Year's Eve. By prior agreement, as Leicester Square and the surrounding district is a magnet for the midnight revellers, the fair closed at 6.30pm.

This coincided with a brief wave of bad weather anyway, with the wind and torrential showers passing through as predicted by forecasters. The uniformed gold and white games-stalls and hooplas
that were specially created by
Wilsons for this location were pulled down early on New Year's Eve to make space for the crowds and to facilitate policing of the area.

However, they were all built up again for New Year's Day and the bright sunshine that accompanied the nearby 21st New Year's Day Parade along Piccadilly brought an estimated 400,000 visitors to the area to see floats from all 32 London boroughs. These mixed with American marching bands and clowns and many spectators flocked to the fair in the bright afternoon,

ahead of more showery weather In the evening.

While the fair had been closed, the KMG booster had its arms lowered in case there were high gusts of wind.
A similar precaution wastaken at Hyde Park, where even greater crowds have been pouring in to the second annual Christmas and New Year's Fair since December 21. Here, the 60 attractions stayed open until 11 pm on New Year's Eve.

This was despite all the wind and showers, which In the event were less pronounced here in the capital than In more Northern parts of the country, where celebrations were cancelled.
Ray Smith for Big Time events, the consortium of Joseph Manning, George Irvin