Penny

Hi Rob, all these years later I discovered your (ha) new post. wow, you've now solved so many mysteries here. I always suspected that the maze may have been bigger in its hey day. I wondered if the machine room was an addition with the times and the maze its self down sized. All I can say is, wow, it must have been awesome in it peak when you saw it, I cant imagine how awe inspiring it would have been taking up the whole area and an upstairs/down stairs configuration. I can really understand your fascination with the place as a youngster as it fascinated and in a way like you, haunted me for decades and I only saw it as fraction of its' wonder. Thank you for your vivid description, your detailed picture you painted really took me back and made sense to how it must have looked. Thank you. Yes that Dragon video was in front of the entrance and how I remember it, as that video was shot in '76 the year I stopped going there. So definitely different to how you remembered how it used to be pre video games room. I know it's a few years after your last post and this may not even reach you, but incase it has, Id love to see that sketch of your memories of this unique and truly bizarre place in Sydney' s history. It seems Im as fascinated as you and has made the same impact on our lives and memories - nice to meet a kindred spirit. Hope this reply finds you well and that passion still burning for such nostalgia. Cheers. Penny

Hi Rob good to hear from you. Im affraid I'm abit like Disney doll and its all a bit vague. I remember a central room with the glass cabinet with model fantasy creatures or people and a forest theme but Im affraid the minotaur thing was abit lost on me I think it went over my head at my young age. I think for memory there were about three revolving doors and I think they had two exits on each one with what felt a long time between doors in the dark as you pushed them to rotate them around. They were made of black wood for memory and not much light. I can recall there were several chambers and passages some with walk through door ways and others that looked like doors but were either mirrors or doors to dead ends. Like Disney Doll I recall a forest with vines. I think there might have been some fairy tale themes within but my imagination could be putting those in. As for the size, its hard to tell cause as a kid everything seemed huge. I think I'd now be not surprised if it wasnt that big just cleverly divided up. I'm guessing it was wider than deep. I do recall it was at the back of an early version of a video game arcade/hall. You had to walk through the machine area to get to the entrance of the maze which I think was a fairy tale looking castle. I didn't discover this place until about 1974 so I wouldnt be at all surprised if originally it took up the whole area but shrank as the years went on to make room for the machines??? Anyhoo the maze was at the kings Cross village which was a little shopping square based on a central courtyard with restaurants and shops. It was two storey and there were two flights of stairs at either end of a balconey with shop fronts so it looked like a C shape. The wax works was there too. The entrance was down stairs with the breathing sleeping beauty wax model in the window and the exit was upstairs. I think the entrance that I recall of the maze and video arcade was a neon sign over an archway and yes I think the stairs are next to it. Anyway Rob I hope that has stired a few memories for you. Id love to see old photos of the place, as I said it had fascinated me all these years as it was a strange and bazaar place and I've looked for ages for anything on it. Haha I think we are the same person and hopefully now we can sleep lol. Please let me know if you ever find anything and I will too. Cheers Penny Rob I just remembered, as a massive Dragon/Marc Hunter fan of the 70s, if you go on youtube and look up the Dragon song This Time it briefly shows you the village as it is filmed in the Cross.... AND I think it has either the entrance of the mirror maze or the wax works. I'm out at the moment so I cant look, BUT I think its the mirror maze!!!!

Hi guys first of all thanks for solving the mystery of the kings cross mirror mazes name. I never knew it was called the Minotour maze, I knew it only as the mirror maze as I grew up at Kings Cross and it was a place my friends and I loved to hang at. I've tried googling it but had no luck until I found this site and these boards.. so thanks. That place was the most amazing place in the world to a 10yr old kid in the 70s. I spent the next couple of years weekends and school hols up there with friends meeting new friends. On my early visits I can remember the spooky dark revolving doors and the fear not knowing where you'd end up when they turned to the other side. I can remember it seemed like an enchanted forest with slightly different themes in the different sections. I recall the adrenalin pumping when you thought you were lost. Later we knew each room/chamber off by heart and where every revolving door exit lead. You could spend all day there (I cant remember what we did for toilet calls or eating), but I can recall meeting in a middle room of mirrors and would just sit talking for hours to other kids. I can admit to even having a pash in a revolving door between the doors and the most amazing games of chasings and spooking younger kids. I do remember there were old school early video games and pinball machines. My friends and I discovered on some games if you switched the power points off and back on you could get a free games. One of those games was a shooting game based on a video of the old wild west gangsters and we would play it over and over again until the management realised and would kick us out. It was truly a fun and rather bazaar place in my childhood memories and one of the many unusual things you were privy to growing up at the Cross. I can also remember the wax works and learning that if you went upstairs to the exit and waited eventually someone would exit and you could grab the door and sneak inside... Priceless!!