Dreamland Margate

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Dreamland Margate is an amusement park in the seaside resort town of Margate, Kent, England.

Dreamland opened in 1920 and has since been a popular attraction with visitors to Margate. The park is famous for having the UK's oldest surviving roller coaster, The Scenic Railway which is a Grade II listed structure. Dreamland was the subject of a 1953 documentary film, O Dreamland.

[edit] Proposed closure/property redevelopment

Since January 2003, Dreamland has been under threat from closure because of the value of commercial land in the area. A campaign has been set up to attempt to save Dreamland from closing. A government inspector's report, carried out from April to September 2004, said the area should be kept exclusively as a theme park and an opinion survey carried out by The Isle of Thanet Gazette, the local paper, shows strong public support for keeping the Dreamland site as an amusement park. Despite this, the site's future is still uncertain and the developers claim that their plans will improve Margate.

Dreamland was open for the Summer 2006 season. It no longer has its ferris wheel.

The owners of the site, Waterbridge Ltd, trading under the name 'Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company', although their interest in the area is really Dreamland, have announced that the park will not open for the 2007 season. It is hoped that, in some form, the Scenic Railway will operate in 2007.

Waterbridge are due to present their redevelopment plans to the public in the Summer of 2007.

Currently on the Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company website you can 'design your own idea for the site'. However, it is not possible, using the simplistic website they have created, to design a theme park, something which several opinion surveys (Thanet Gazette) have shown to be what the majority of people want and what was recommended for the site by government inspectors in a 2006 survey of Britain's coastal resorts (Thanet Gazette, Save Dreamland Campaign).