UK's Dreamland to close for good on Sunday

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Sunday marks the end of the ride for Dreamland amusement park on Margate seafront. For more than 140 years the site has offered generations of residents and visitors all the fun of the fair, changing through the decades as technology took over from tradition. Owner Jimmy Godden is selling the site due to dwindling visitor numbers.

Related parks

Dreamland

How sad. Even last summer, far from its heyday, this was a fun little park to stop in at.

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--Greg, aka Oat Boy
My page
"The safety word is 'banana'." -- Family Guy

Send the Scenic Railway to Knoebels! On a serious note, what are they going to do with the rides?

EDIT: For some reason, half of my message got deleted just as I posted it.

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I'm a loser.*** This post was edited by MarimbaGuy87 9/26/2003 4:00:56 PM ***

I'd have to say this was inevitable. I used to be a fairly frequent visitor to the park and saw it decline over the years. I think the problem was lack of investment and some poor strategy on the part of the park's management.

Obviously they didn't have the means to install a B&M inverter :-) Indeed, you don't necessarilly expect rides of that magnitude in a small seaside resort. However, they didn't even bother to upgrade any of the stalls or even the arcade machines. The removal of the park's two best rides: the Looping Star and the Mary Rose was also very puzzling (unless it was due to maintenance woes).

I do worry about the future of the senic railway: I don't know what provisions its 'listed structure' status has for ensuring its continued operation. It would be a great shame to see it left redundant and slowly deteriorate. I'd much rather see it moved to another park, even if it meant moving it to a park outside the UK.

Support your LOCAL parks here in America, for this can and has happend in the U.S. The corporate giants will be O.K; it's the classic independent run parks that are at risk. Out west the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk for example.

Usually true, but I would wager to say that there are a number of independent parks in the U.S. right now that are in better shape than the corporate ones. I have a good feeling that Knoebels and Holiday World are turning better profits (percentage-wise) than a good number of SF properties.

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-Rob
A.C.E. member since 1990
Posting @ Coasterbuzz since 2000
E.C.C. member since 2002

Good point Rob. There are those parks in the mid west and back east that are at risk that are mentioned on this site from time to time.

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