Dreamland Heritage Amusement Park
Our Proposals

"Margate's unique selling point is the iconic Scenic Railway - so where better in the UK to put the world's first heritage amusement park than next to the UK's most famous piece of amusement park heritage?"
Nick Laister, Campaign Leader

The Save Dreamland Campaign launched its new proposals for Dreamland on 30 April 2007: the Dreamland Heritage Amusement Park (click here for the news item).

The Campaign launched its previous Vision for Dreamland - 'I Dream of Dreamland' - in March 2005, which showed a Concept Plan of how Dreamland could look if acquired by one of the theme park operators interested in taking on the site. This plan was backed by Southend's Adventure Island Theme Park, one of the operators vying to take over the park.

Following a series of meetings meetings with Thanet District Council and the Margate Renewal Partnership (MRP) between January and April 2007, the Campaign developed the concept of a Heritage Amusement Park for Dreamland, based around the listed Scenic Railway.

Our vision for the world's first Heritage Amusement Park would be to include some of the remaining examples of Britain's amusement park heritage - many of the rides being rescued from parks that have recently closed down - in a high quality park-like environment around the Scenic Railway. The listed Cinema building would also be brought back into use with rides, shows, bars, restaurants and an amusement park/seaside heritage museum.

The Campaign has carried out some initial feasibility work on the viability of the project and has commissioned theme park designer Jean-Marc Toussaint to produce a new Concept Plan (see below) for the site showing how the park could look, based on an initial site area provided by MRP. The Plan shows a potential selection of vintage amusement park rides of the type that could operate at the park, including those rides that have already been acquired for the project.

The Campaign sees funding from the developer of the remainder of the land within Dreamland, along with other grant funding, as critical in delivering this attraction. The Save Dreamland Campaign has set up The Dreamland Trust, which will play a key role in delivering the Heritage Amusement Park project. We believe that this is the best option to secure the future of the Grade 2 listed Scenic Railway and for the distinguished history of the park to be recognised. It is also the best way to rescue the historic amusement rides that will be lost following the closure of a large number of Britain's seaside amusement parks over the past few months. It is an ideal way of safeguarding and preserving the UK's amusement park heritage at this critical time. The Trust is currently in active discussions with a number of parks with a view to saving their threatened vintage rides and moving them to Dreamland. The Dreamland project should capture the public's imagination and will also undoubtedly play a pivotal role in the regeneration of Margate, creating a contemporary and unique living museum.

Initial feasibility work undertaken by the Save Dreamland Campaign and by independent consultants suggests that the project will be viable. Further ongoing feasibility work on the project is being undertaken by a leading tourism consultancy.  

We believe this proposal to be right for Dreamland and hugely beneficial to Margate as a tourism destination. We are confident that this is a realistic proposal, which should attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to Margate every year.

The Concept Plan (updated 1 July 2007)

The Concept Plan has been designed by Jean-Marc Toussaint, the man behind our original 'I Dream of Dreamland...' plan. It demonstrates that the Heritage Park can be accommodated within approximately 7 acres, the exact location to be determined at a later date. More information on the project's feasibility and the Concept Plan will be added to this page over the coming weeks, as our proposals are developed further. 

The Campaign has consulted with its own members on the Heritage Park concept, and the response has been overwhelmingly favourable.

Click here for the latest news.
Click here for the May 2007 press release.
 

Dreamland Heritage Amusement Park: Concept Plan by Jean-Marc Toussaint


Click here for a high resolution version of the Concept Plan (3 MB). Where a ride has already been acquired for the project, you can click on it for details.

The Rides (updated 1 July 2007)

A large number of British seaside amusement parks have closed down over the past few years and several more are closing over the next few months. Most of Britain's amusement park heritage outside of Blackpool and Great Yarmouth would have been lost by the end of 2007 were it not for the Dreamland Trust and the Dreamland Heritage Amusement Park project. Most of the rides that will be featured in the Heritage Amusement Park will have been 'rescued' from these amusement parks. The rides, which are some of the last remaining examples of their type in the world, will be placed in storage to enable them to be rebuilt as part of the proposed Heritage Amusement Park at Dreamland, Margate.

The first tranche of rides have been acquired from Southport's defunct Pleasureland Amusement Park. Southport's Pleasureland is one of only a handful of seaside amusement parks in this country that still have original vintage amusement park rides. Rides such as the River Caves and Caterpillar date back to the 1920s. Sadly the park closed last year and the rides were due to be bulldozed in June 2007 to make way for a new temporary fairground operator. Nick Laister of the Dreamland Trust has been in discussions with Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Pleasureland's new owners, Sefton Council, since February with a view to removing all the original rides to allow them to be placed in storage for use in the proposed Heritage Amusement Park. Thankfully these discussions have resulted in the rides being 'donated' to the Dreamland project. The rides have been numbered and carefully dismantled, with photographs being taken at each step of the process to allow for the rides to be rebuilt in Margate.

As rides are acquired for the project, they will be listed below, along with some information on their historic importance. Click on each ride for more information. We are assembling information on each ride's history for potential use on information boards adjacent to each ride. Therefore, if you have any information on each ride's history, please send it to us using the link on each page.

1. Museum Outdoor Exhibit
2. Food and Beverage Kiosk
3. Redemption Games
4. Gallopers
5. Cableway
6. Whip

7. Rotor
8. Turtle Chase
9. Food and Beverage Kiosk
10. Water Chute

11. Scenic Railway
12. River Caves
13. Sandstorm
14. Junior Train
15. First Aid
16. Dreamland Train
17. Shop
18. Food and Beverage Kiosk
19. Ghost Train (called 'Ghost Ride' on Concept Plan)
20. Caterpillar
21. Maintenance
22. Toy Set
23. Redemption Games
24. Haunted Swing
25. Food and Beverage Kiosk
26. Downhill Racer
27. Wild Mouse
28. Helter Skelter
29. Maintenance
30. Mirror Maze
31. Ferris Wheel
32. Kiddie Train
33. Flying Scooters
 

 

Click here to discuss the Concept Plan in our Save Dreamland Forum!

The Heritage Amusement Park Concept Plan was produced by Jean-Marc Toussaint of Amusement Illustrations and Designs

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