The Kursaal, once only second to Blackpool Pleasure Beach, is facing yet another assault on the dignity of its memory and heritage.
Apart from being the second greatest amusement park that this country has ever seen, the famous domed entrance buildings contained a magnificent ballroom, banqueting suites, bars, and a long glazed arcade similar to the Winter Gardens at Blackpool, leading to a circus building.
After finally closing in the mid 1980's, the landmark entrance building was ripped apart by developer Brent Walker, a real Jimmy Godden of the time, and left to decay for over 10 years.
Southend council bought the building and restored it, sadly retaining only the entrance and famous dome.
The only other original salvageable part of the building was the superb art deco bar inside the entrance which was sadly ripped out and dumped into skips in order to provide space for Macdonalds. The rest of the building was demolished and rebuilt to house a faceless bowling alley and casino.
Even the famous illuminated Juggling Clown sign to the right of the building was ripped out and replaced with a cheap pastiche featuring Ronald Macdonald.
Even after this multi-million pound "restoration", which was opened in 1998 under the slogan of "The Magic Returns", the Kursaal remains, in every sense of the word a very sad shadow of itself. The entrance rotunda was superbly restored and remains impressive with its internally illuminated stained glass dome picked out externally in red neon, and moderne internally lit columns, again reminiscent of the Winter Gardens. However the rest of the building is tacky, run down or disused. Even the Macdonalds has closed down in the last couple of years and the Juggling Clown taken down.
The problem is that the council handed the restored building over to a bowling operator on a 100 year peppercorn rent and every attempt to provide quality entertainment and catering facilities, as was in the original brief, was only allowed to operate for around six months before being abandoned by the lessee. The same lessee allowed the interior of the building to fall into a disgusting state of cleanliness and disrepair.
The bowling has been taken over by another operator, but a large premium ground floor area remains empty. This is now under threat from Tesco’s-every little hurts, who are applying to open a supermarket here.
http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/4077569 ... e_Kursaal/
Anybody who cares about our seaside and amusement park heritage should write to Southend Borough Council to object to these proposals.