What's new

Dreamland Plans being revealed.

furie

SBOPD
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
You may have read the news item that on Sunday, the plans for the Dreamland Heritage park in Margate are going to be revealed.

There was a sneak preview let out last night for us to have as an appetizer.
DLHAP_rivercaves01.jpg


http://www.savedreamland.co.uk/

Looks interesting, can't wait to see what the actual plans are :)
 
^The artwork looks pretty good. Hope to see some more of them once the unveiling is done on Sunday.

I would have guessed this was all on hold with the state of the economy at the moment but its good to see them finally take some more steps towards getting this park un and running.

I just hope they remember to stick that plaque up with the names of people who sent them nominations last year :--D .
 
I think the current economy is driving this now.

The company that owns the land wanted to turn it into housing and shops. So they vastly inflated the land value (to the point Philip Miller, who owns Adventure Island, couldn't afford to buy it to build a new park).

Now though, the land value is not worth as much, and the plans they had (oddly, being run by Urban Splash who have the Pleasureland job, which is now on hold), just won't work.

So the only hope they have of turning this dead land into real cash is to go ahead with the park idea. There will still be some retail and housing, but the way things have gone have pushed Dreamland higher up the agenda...
 
So did Phillip Miller buy the land or are Urban Splash now turning it into a park?

I hope Phillip Miller owns it as he seems to have his head screwed on and has done wonders at Adventure Island bringing in rage etc..

The artwork looks good and I think this could really work, I know I would definitely visit it just for the scenic railway.
 
It's owned by the Margate Regeneration Company (or whatever they're called). Same people who owned Dreamland and took away the rides :roll:

Urban Splash are the company tasked with creating a new development, and are working alongside the owners (well, they're employed by them) and the Dreamland Trust.

Phillip Miller doesn't own Dreamland...
 
If it ends up looking like the artwork then I may go back again. They'd certainly have to have more than a Scenic Railway and River Caves to make me revisit though.
 
Shame he didn't buy it would have been in good hands if he got it.

Problem with the same owners is you can't exactly trust them, aren't they the people that wanted to build the Morrisons or whatever?

Having said that they are pumping £12 Million into it. (which seems inadequate considering Saw cost £13.5) I just hope it all turns out well and we all get to ride the Scenic again.
 
Looks interesting, I can't wait to see the rest of the plans after Sunday. What do you think the likelihood of it actually getting built is though?
 
Seems like they aim to create something of a amusement beach history park, relocating alot of expired classics from around the country to their site.

River Caves? Plans to actually move that from the Southport site, or replicate it?

I'm not sure what I think of this idea. While the historical thing intrigues me, it does put them into a bit of a development pit, whereby they can't approach modern manufacturers for future attractions.

Not very helpful for the long term (or even short term mountainous), and out of experience, places that attempt this ideal tend to give up a few years later and pad the place out with unfitting, tired old travelling rides just to claim something is new.
 
The River Caves were partly rescued from Southport...

The idea of this park is to be a kind of "living history museum". It's going to have lots of thrill rides (there's even talk of securing funding to build a "new" classic ride, like a Virginia Reel), and some tamer stuff. The listed cinema is going to have museum displays in it showing the development of theme parks and rides.

Nothing like this has ever been attempted before, as far as anyone is aware. I think there's a cutoff of about 50 years old for any ride being included in the park.

We'll see, but there's good vision behind it at the moment.
 
I wish they bought Roller Coaster from Blackpool, and King Solomans mine is going to be moved here as well isn't it?
 
Yeah the Save Dreamland Campaign have KSM in storage at the moment. I would guess Roller Coaster would be very hard to re-locate and I think they have enough rides at the moment already lined up for Dreamland.
 
I used to love riding the Water Chute they had at GYPB, so it would be nice to go on one of them again, you never see them anymore.

This makes up alot from the closure of Camelot amd Pleasureland.

Furie, what happened in the end with the situaton of trains for the Scenic?
 
The trains from the Scenic are all destroyed, but a firm has come forward and said that they can rebuild them all from what was left of the metal, and from the good photos people have supplied.

So they'll be brand new trains, but as close to the originals as they can be.
 
furie said:
The River Caves were partly rescued from Southport...

The idea of this park is to be a kind of "living history museum". It's going to have lots of thrill rides (there's even talk of securing funding to build a "new" classic ride, like a Virginia Reel), and some tamer stuff. The listed cinema is going to have museum displays in it showing the development of theme parks and rides.

By partly rescused do you mean "the bits that were left because Pleasurebeach didn't have enough time to send a wrecking ball through them?".

I'd love to see them try and build a Virginia reel, however with H&S being in it's nanny-state atm they'd have to do put in seatbelts I suspect. Still wish i'd been able to go on the Blackpool one. Alas, I was about 40 years too late I suspect.
 
furie said:
Nothing like this has ever been attempted before, as far as anyone is aware. I think there's a cutoff of about 50 years old for any ride being included in the park.

Whilst anything that Dreamland attempt will probably be worth a visit, I'd like to think they'd include a ride like Turbine at Walibi Belgium if the oppurtunity arose, although it's only about 30 years old, these are becoming qute rare and it's unlikely that we'll see any more being built any time soon.

Although, a "new" Virginia Reel would definitely be a preferred attraction. Even the rebuilt Scenic Railway will be enough to get me down there though, nothing to do with grabbing the credit before Urban Splash burn it down again :p
 
This is the best news I've heard in years. I used to adore going to Dreamland when I was younger. Its a shame they couldn't have bought the Corkscrew (at Alton Towers) for the park. That would have been a nice and historic edition. :(
 
^Well if the idea is to keep the park around the 50 year old gap from today's theme park attractions the Corkscrew would stick out like a chimp in a fish tank wouldn't it?

I think this sounds incredible! A real treat, and I hope that the plans show that this is going to work to it's full potential.
 
Top