Barcadia Norwich owner is criticised by Kickstarter backers

Peter Leigh opened Barcadia in the former Prince of Wales pub in May 2023, after receiving £27,781 from 381 backers via a crowdfunding campaign.

However, Mr Leigh - who has 539,000 subscribers on his Youtube channel, Nostalgia Nerd - has been criticised by some for not following through on his promise to reward backers with merchandise including t-shirts, pin badges and books.

Barcadia is set up with multiple retro gaming machines (Image: Peter Leigh)

Mr Leigh, who recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of Barcadia, has hit back at the claims saying the "vast majority of rewards have been fulfilled" and "trolls" are to blame for the criticism.

Mark Reeve, 52, from Lowestoft, who backed the campaign, said: "There were different levels to contribute - it went up to several hundreds of pounds. 

"I went for the £75 option for the rewards, which added another £5.95 in postage and to genuinely help out, as I'm really interested in old arcades.

Messages on the Kickstarter have criticised the delay in receiving rewards (Image: Kickstarter)

"Barcadia opened in May last year and we were meant to get rewards in June - however nearly a year on and we've got nothing.

"There are also discussions on the discord server and the Kickstarter complaining about not receiving anything."

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Mr Leigh fired back, claiming "trolls have been hounding the campaign since it started".

Mr Leigh says the vast majority of rewards have been fulfilled (Image: Peter Leigh)

He added: "The vast majority of rewards have been fulfilled, it's just a few book packs which haven't been sent out yet as I made a slight miscalculation on the postage.

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"It feels like some people are doing everything they can to put the business in the ground - it's a pain to be honest.

Backers claim they haven't received merchandise more than a year after they were promised (Image: Kickstarter)

"I apologise to anyone who hasn't received their rewards yet - I'm working on it and they'll be sent out soon."

Others questioned why the company's accounts, up to May 31, 2023, are showing as overdue by three months on Companies House.

Mr Leigh however has confirmed "the accounts are now done".

Barcadia opened in Prince of Wales Road in May 2023 (Image: Peter Leigh)