Park Profile www.parkworld-online.com


A place


where age is left at the gate


One of the oldest surviving amusement parks in the UK, Dreamland gives visitors of all ages the chance to experience stunning vintage rides, pop-up entertainment, art installations and eclectic street food, and boasts a year-round programme of live music and events. Having grown up spending her summers there, Park World editor, Becci Knowles recently paid a visit to the revamped park to find out how it preserves its treasured heritage, while keeping up with consumer demand


style amusement park. And he didn’t hang about. A year later it was Dreamland, with 500,000 visitors taking a bumpy, but enjoyable ride on its now iconic Scenic Railway in the first three months alone. A jewel in Margate’s crown, Dutch amusement park


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operators Bembom bought the site in 1981 and re-named it Bembom Brothers. Six or seven years later, I would visit for the first time. The new owners introduced a plethora of new rides including a white knuckle looping coaster, the Looping Star, a pirate ship, the Ladybird children’s coaster and Cinema 2000, which was an early 3-D cinema set up. In 1990, it became Dreamland again, more greenery was added to the landscape around the rides, the cinema was


JUNE 2019


hen John Henry Iles purchased Margate’s ‘The Hall By The Sea’ in 1919 it was with the clear intention of turning into an American-


renovated and an admission fee introduced. Soon, I was a regular visitor. My friends and I would travel by train with a ticket that got us there and got us in, all for £10. We loved that it was by the seaside and could wander in and out of the park to take a stroll along the beach, occasionally putting our feet up to watch the world go by or stopping by the arcades in the hope of winning something to take home. I can remember queuing for the Looping Star desperate to get a place right at the front or, failing that, right at the back for extra speed (or so I thought!); seeing coins and other loose items falling from people’s pockets as they hung upside down on the Mary Rose; the anxiety inducing ‘click, click, click’ of the Scenic Railway on its first, steep climb to the top, then the excitement (and relief!) on making the drop; and the stunning views of Margate from the Big Wheel as the sun set on a fun filled day.


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