I have just discovered this website, having just been alerted to the sad news that Dreamland maybe closed down and redeveloped.
I have been looking for websites with photos and information about Dreamland for ages and this website is exceptional. It is just sad that it has taken the current circumstances to bring this about.
I am a keen theme park enthusiast and it all started when I first visited Dreamland with my parents in 1980 just before the Bembom Brothers took over. From about 1983 I fell in love with the place and made regular trips from Tadley, Hants (120 miles away) with my mates to Margate purely to visit the amusement park.
Margate was really buzzing in those days. The park was full with thousands of people, there was a real good atmosphere and it really got my adrenalin pumping everytime I visited.
My favourite rides were the Scenic Railway, the Looping Star, the Mary Rose, the Big Wheel and the Enterprise.
Whenever I see the episode of 'Only Fools and Horses' called 'The Jolly Boys Outing' where they visit Dreamland and ride on the Mary Rose, it almost brings a tear to my eye.
When I returned in 1996, 2002 & 2003 respectively, the place was a pale shadow of the place I knew and had grown up with.
The sale of the Big Wheel (to a Mexican park) was especially upsetting as I considered it to be a great landmark that graced the Margate skyline.
Whereas Blackpool had its tower, Margate had its Big Wheel.
Under Jimmy Godden, year by year, rides were being sold off and the park scaled down and so attendances continued to fall.
How has this been allowed to happen?
Why was the park no longer advertised anywhere and why could I no longer get a single leaflet about the place even when I visited it?
Under the Bembom Brothers business was booming, 2 million people came into Margate every year, the park was advertised on TV and there were leaflets about the park. Also virtually every train station in the South had literature about the park and the combined rail and admission tickets deal.
It saddens me to say this, but this situation has been a long time coming.
The last thing I want to see a casino or similar leisure facility built on the site. There are casinos in every town. They will not attract the families to Margate.
Amusement parks are magical places, especially when you are young. Dreamland was once a magical place for me before it fell into decline.
I just hope that someone steps in with a large amount of money and gets the park back to its former glory so that our children and many
generations to come can enjoy its magic.
p.s. Whatever happened to the Bembom Brothers? Why did they sell up?
Can we get them back please?