Dreamland
MARGATE
Save Dreamland Update January 2010
One of the most exciting things we have been able to do as part of the campaign to save
Dreamland has been to go out and rescue historic amusement park rides from parks that
are closing down. Our biggest logistical exercise was to rescue the remaining rides from
Southport Pleasureland in 2007, after the park was closed by its owners, Blackpool
Pleasure Beach. Our contractors (Hopkinson Construction Engineering Ltd, who had
just finished building the Knightmare roller coaster at Camelot) started work on
dismantling the wooden Wild Mouse coaster on Wednesday 6 June 2007 and worked on
dismantling the other rides for about a month. The Wild Mouse, the most complex of the
rides to dismantle and transport (and the most costly at £25,000!), was numbered and
photographed and is now in container storage until work starts on the Dreamland
Heritage Amusement Park project.
We also took the River Caves (boats, pump, other machinery); Ghost Train (track,
trains, spares, etc), Mistral Flying Machine (Flying Scooters); Sandstorm/Astro Swirl
(Meteorite); Caterpillar; Cableway; and Fun House machines ( except Joy Wheel and
Barrel, which are now at BPB). The Haunted Swing and Mirror Maze are still in situ due
to asbestos in the roof. We also left the Crooked House behind as it is riddled with
asbestos.
The rides would have all been bulldozed if we had not stepped in as Sefton Council
cleared most of the site for Norman Wallis ('Dreamstorm'), who has a lease to run a fun
fair there. Things got a bit difficult at times, as the bulldozers entered the site and
clearance started before we had finalised arrangements for dismantling the rides. The
Council agreed to get them started on clearing the zoo, and leave the rides intact.
Funding for this first tranche of ride dismantling came from the Margate Town
Centre Regeneration Company Ltd, the owners of Dreamland, who we are now working
alongside to deliver the Heritage Park.
We believe that this project is the best way to secure the long-term future of the
Grade 2 listed Scenic Railway at Dreamland and for the distinguished history of the park
to be recognised. It is also no exaggeration to say that over the last two or three years
most of the country's amusement park heritage outside of Blackpool and Great
Yarmouth would have been lost were it not for the Dreamland project. Rides such as the
last surviving circular Water Chute (from Rhyl) and the Whip from Blackpool would
have been scrapped. It is therefore an ideal way of safeguarding and preserving the UK's
amusement park heritage at this critical time.
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