The history and heritage of the Scenic Railway at Dreamland Margate will be celebrated this week when the Dreamland Heritage Trust launches its first ever virtual exhibition.
The Scenic 100 virtual exhibition showcases the incredible history of the Scenic Railway from its launch on July 3, 1920, up to the present day. The pioneering rollercoaster, the oldest in the country, has stood at the heart of Margate for more than 100 years.
Visitors can navigate the two virtual galleries and cinema room and find out about the history of the ride using their phones or computer devices.
The virtual exhibition has been supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and developed with the creative team at Westcoast Kent Community Interest Company -based at Olby’s Creative hub in Margate – and the virtual tour company 360vista.
The exhibition forms part of The Dreamland Heritage Trust and Dreamland Margate’s programme of events designed to celebrate the century milestone in the park’s history.
Events planned to mark the big year in 2020 had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.
The Scenic 100 Exhibition can be seen at: https://olbyscreativehub.co.uk/DreamTrust19July/index.htm
A second exhibition, Dreamland 100, will be launched in the autumn.
It would be better if the ride was open and could be used though !!
Which fool decided to close it this year ?
No fools involved, just hard headed businessmen/ investors. They are only interested in getting the best possible return and they’ll say/do anything to achieve this. TDC won’t make any great efforts to hold them to account and even if they tried the owners legal teams would run rings round TDC.
Thanet really has little other option than to wait and see what transpires and the plans proposed by the current/future owners. Fingers crossed it doesn’t turn into another Pleasurama. As for the scenic railway and the other rides owned by Dreamland, don’t hold your breath waiting for them to reopen. They’ll do similar to TDC , let things stand untended then issue a statement saying they need an expert report, leading to need for extensive/specialist work, descending into an endless decline.
Doing anything positive will be contingent on getting what they want elsewhere on the site.
The online scenic exhibition however good it is cannot compensate for the continued semi closure of the amusement park and in particular the scenic railway .
Rather than splooging money on another nod and a wink to the past, you know, when Margate and Dreamland were actually good, why isn’t this money put in to further developing Dreamland as an attraction? It is an amusement park with only a handful of rides operating.
It is almost as though the owners of Dreamland are intentionally running it into the ground whilst simultaneously getting their dirty, thieving meathooks on taxpayers money, namely the £4million from the Margate Millions, all with an end goal of demonstrating it isn’t ‘viable’, then putting up cheap to build, highly profitable housing for DFLs.