Bouncy Castle History

Here in the UK we refer to an inflatable that can be jumped on as a bouncy castle, even though most do not resemble a castle! Did you know bouncy castles are also called bounce houses, moonwalk's, jumping castle's & closed inflatable trampolines?

The first inflatable structure was designed by John Scurlock in 1959. At the time he was experimenting with inflatable covers & noticed his son having lots of fun jumping on the air structure. Scurlock was a pioneer of inflatable domes, tents & signs but his greatest achievement was the invention of a safety air cushion which is used today by fire & rescue services to catch people jumping from heights.

The very first bouncy castle manufacturing company was based in New Orleans and Scurlock's wife, Frances, set up the first inflatable hire company in 1966 and then in 1976 built a custom facility for the production and rental of their inflatable products.They marketed space walks to children's events such as birthday parties, school fetes and company events. These original inflatables were not enclosed like today's inflatables.

More information on the history of bouncy castle's can be found here