Dreamland Margate: General Discussion

[Skyscraper]

It is definitely on a trailer. You can see the wheels when on the ride.

Yeah it definitely is.

 

[Matt N]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I just wanted to ask; out of interest, has this park reopened from the COVID pandemic yet?

I feel like I’ve heard absolutely zilch out of Dreamland lately, which is a real shame. Scenic Railway is a true icon of the British coaster industry, what with it being the country’s oldest roller coaster, and the park as a whole seemed to be thriving to a reasonable degree pre-COVID, from what I could tell.

From a personal standpoint, I’m still pretty gutted about the fact that Dreamland/Scenic Railway remains among my biggest spites 2.5 years on from my attempted visit. Under normal circumstances, I’m located the best part of 4 hours from Margate by car, but we were holidaying in Canterbury, which is only around 30 minutes away, in October half term 2019. We were actually pondering a visit, and I was properly psyched to ride the UK’s oldest roller coaster, but lo and behold, the park was shut on the day we were planning to visit. Kent’s half term was different from ours, so the park had shut for the season the Sunday prior. Thankfully, we never actually went to Margate (my parents found this out prior to us hopping in the car and stalled our trip to Margate before it became a genuine, complete spite), but I am still somewhat gutted that I wasn’t able to get on Scenic when I was down near it.

We ended up going to Whitstable for the afternoon, and while that was a perfectly nice seaside town, further salt was rubbed in the wound by the fact that I could see Adventure Island in Southend on the horizon while we were strolling along the beach…

But even putting aside my personal Dreamland spite story, it is still really sad if Dreamland hasn’t reopened from COVID even though restrictions have now ended. The park doesn’t deserve to die.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I just wanted to ask; out of interest, has this park reopened from the COVID pandemic yet?

I feel like I’ve heard absolutely zilch out of Dreamland lately, which is a real shame. Scenic Railway is a true icon of the British coaster industry, what with it being the country’s oldest roller coaster, and the park as a whole seemed to be thriving to a reasonable degree pre-COVID, from what I could tell.

From a personal standpoint, I’m still pretty gutted about the fact that Dreamland/Scenic Railway remains among my biggest spites 2.5 years on from my attempted visit. Under normal circumstances, I’m located the best part of 4 hours from Margate by car, but we were holidaying in Canterbury, which is only around 30 minutes away, in October half term 2019. We were actually pondering a visit, and I was properly psyched to ride the UK’s oldest roller coaster, but lo and behold, the park was shut on the day we were planning to visit. Kent’s half term was different from ours, so the park had shut for the season the Sunday prior. Thankfully, we never actually went to Margate (my parents found this out prior to us hopping in the car and stalled our trip to Margate before it became a genuine, complete spite), but I am still somewhat gutted that I wasn’t able to get on Scenic when I was down near it.

We ended up going to Whitstable for the afternoon, and while that was a perfectly nice seaside town, further salt was rubbed in the wound by the fact that I could see Adventure Island in Southend on the horizon while we were strolling along the beach…

So last summer, Dreamland had six mediocre rides open. No Scenic and they've sold off most of the rides they bought in 2018. They've mostly been using the place as an events space which is a shame given how much they have invested into the park.

 

[Matt N]

So last summer, Dreamland had six mediocre rides open. No Scenic and they've sold off most of the rides they bought in 2018. They've mostly been using the place as an events space which is a shame given how much they have invested into the park.

So the park has at least reopened from COVID to a degree, then. I wonder if they’ll ever reopen Scenic?

 

[Skyscraper]

They seem to have unfortunately gone young family-orientated like a lot of smaller UK parks have done recently.

 

[Thameslink Rail]

I love how Tina Turner's head is one of their headline attractions (!)

 

[JAperson]

I can't believe Scenic hasn't reopenned yet, I want to ride it and would make the trip to do it, surely it's the whole point of this park existing. I think me and @Thameslink Rail have said this before but the people who run this place have got zero idea what they are doing.
They really should have gone and stuck with the retro vibe, a few retro rides or at least retro looking an events space and the scenic would've suited the place perfectly. Marketed it like that too and I think they'd have been onto a winner (obviously not a massive money maker but at least somewhat successful). It's such a shame.

 

[venny]

I’ll admit I don’t know the details, but I was under the impression that for many years the Save Dreamland project had a rather large number of historic rides collated with the intent of rebuilding them.

That now seems to have gone completely out of the door, so what happened to all those rides and all the effort that went into the original campaign?

 

[JAperson]

I’ll admit I don’t know the details, but I was under the impression that for many years the Save Dreamland project had a rather large number of historic rides collated with the intent of rebuilding them.

That now seems to have gone completely out of the door, so what happened to all those rides and all the effort that went into the original campaign?

I don't know but that's what they should've done instead of wasting there money on some crap standard Zamperla rides that most parks have got.

 

[Funcone]

They've mostly been using the place as an events space which is a shame given how much they have invested into the park.

You mean, how much of our money they've invested in the park. About £35 million of public money has gone into Dreamland if you add up money from Thanet District Council, The Coastal Communities Fund, The Lottery and some smaller pots of money like The Prince's Trust. They've just been awared another £4 million of public money, which will take it up to £39 million.

 

[JAperson]

You mean, how much of our money they've invested in the park. About £35 million of public money has gone into Dreamland if you add up money from Thanet District Council, The Coastal Communities Fund, The Lottery and some smaller pots of money like The Prince's Trust. They've just been awared another £4 million of public money, which will take it up to £39 million.

That is what's known as corruption. Why have they been given more money? They aren't doing what they are there to do. The scenic should be reopened as soon as possible.

 

[pjanvil]

Yep they were donated loads of historic and unique old rides from Blackpool and Pleasureland South port like The Whip, River Caves, fun house, ghost train and the mechanics of the last surviving waterchute ride. The heritage theme park was a much better idea and I'm not clear when it was dropped and what has happened to these rides since.

 

[Rick]

That now seems to have gone completely out of the door, so what happened to all those rides and all the effort that went into the original campaign?

When I went down to collect the cars and various other bits from the Southport Mouse, the guy who helped us load said a number of items had 'been weighed in'. He didn't (couldn't) elaborate. The Southport Cableway cars were sold, as were the Mistral buckets, but I think the steel work for both were scrapped. The Rhyl Water Chute cars made it to the park, but I don't think have appeared anywhere since.

Someone on this forum will almost certainly have better knowledge of some of that stuff - but they might not be in a position to reveal.

 

[rob666]

Rumours on a couple of sites that most had been left outdoors and had gone rotten in the rain.

 

[venny]

It seems pretty scandalous that a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to save these rides, only for them to all be sold off, rot away or be weighed in. Some genuine, irreplaceable pieces of amusement park history lost forever (or sat in Rick’s garden!).

 

[Rick]

@venny Agreed ... I think BPB Ltd and others donated them in good faith and I think it's fair to say that some of the people on the other side of that arrangement share your frustrations in terms of how things ended up.

The heritage park was a great idea, but as the likelihood of that happening diminished, it seems inevitable that things would have ended the way that they did. There isn't really a wealth of parks in this country in particular that would be quick to take on a 50+ year old ride, go through the hassle of trying to rebuild, commission it and maintain it. I know in some threads we castigate parks for sticking a pin in the Zamperla catalogue when they want a new ride but it makes complete sense on a number of levels.

The reason a lot of those rides were at Pleasure Beach, Pleasureland and Ocean Beach were because they'd always been there, or because in some cases someone like (almost always) WGT did something that probably wasn't particularly normal/economical and bucked the trend. Massively helped by the fact that when Frontierland closed, he had two other parks down the road he could move the rides to and an army of talented people to do the heavy lifting.

In any other example, the Morecambe mouse would have been scrapped in 1999, only through circumstance did it get a second life until 2006 - a hat trick was always going to be difficult and it turned out to be just that.

 

[Stuie]

It seems pretty scandalous that a lot of people went to a lot of trouble to save these rides, only for them to all be sold off, rot away or be weighed in. Some genuine, irreplaceable pieces of amusement park history lost forever (or sat in Rick’s garden!).

So, back before the site was subject to a compulsory purchase order, there was an agreement with the then land owner that 49% of the site would be gifted to a trust to be an amusement park. In return, 51% of the site could be developed. Save Dreamland Campaign agreed with the land owner to store rescued rides on the site in preparation for the HAP. When things turned ugly with the land owner, items went missing and bits were scrapped - just enough of each ride to make it not viable to restore.

The park and the scenic railway will be open this year and work is going on at the moment but what the ride line up will be is not clear. There is already a stacked events schedule for the summer with many big names: https://www.dreamland.co.uk/events

The cinema and the park are currently being used as a movie set for a new Sam Mendes movie starring Colin Firth and Olivia Coleman.

Olivia Colman joins filming for Hollywood movie

Filming for a new Sam Mendes film featuring Olivia Colman and Colin Firth has been taking place on the Kent coast over the past week.

www.kentonline.co.uk

 

[Funcone]

How people see the Dreamland project will partly depend on where you sit politically, and what you see its purpose as being. Most parks wouldn't have restored those vintage rides, but most parks didn't get £35 million of public money. There was supposed to be a historical and educational element that is somewhat missing. In terms of the events, they might be fun. Certainly, they're getting some impressive names. But a relatively small number of events, mostly using external companies and agency staff, isn't necessarily providing a lot of employment.

Putting theme parks aside for a moment, it does feel like there ought to be a bit more transparency around how public money is spent. And it doesn't exactly feel like Dreamland's future is secure.

 

[JAperson]

Dreamland shouldn't have been sold off, it should've developed as a historic attraction (a sort of museum but much cooler if you will) under public ownership.
I'd like to know where the money has gone, why they are getting more, where the new money will go, did they use public money to buy the Zamperla catalogue that the owners have just sold and profited from. There is just so many questions which remain unanswered, which is unacceptable.

 

[Funcone]

It does seem astonishing that £35 million has gone into the Dreamland project, yet the whole lot is owned by a hedge fund in the Cayman Islands. On one hand, you could argue that The Smiler cost £20 million, so £35 million isn’t so much. On the other hand, The Looping Group bought Drayton Manor for £15 million. If they spent £5 million on Adventure Cove and £5 million on the Viking area, then they could spend £10 million on the new coaster and they’d have spent no more than the tax payer has on Dreamland.

Of course, the investment was never primarily about getting ‘value’ for the taxpayer. It was about preserving history, education, and providing jobs in a deprived area. But has it really achieved on any of those?