Margate architect Lucy Jones has been appointed the new chair of the Dreamland Heritage Trust.
Lucy is currently Convenor for the MA Architecture and MA Interior Design programmes at the University for the Creative Arts, Canterbury. She is an architect who has worked locally and internationally at several well-known practices such as Rick Mather Architects. She has helped found a design collective and also practices independently.
Lucy has experience of a range of scales, working with the existing fabric of heritage buildings on large complex sites, smaller scale domestic projects, and multi-media installations in diverse locations, sometimes as live-build projects with her students.
She is passionate about heritage, the environment and sustainable development, which is reflected in her practice, teaching and research activities.
Lucy said: “I am delighted to be joining the Trust at this pivotal time. The community of Thanet holds Dreamland very much in its heart. The team have achieved so much and I am looking forward to building on this good work as we take the Trust into the future.”
Lucy replaces Andrew Baker who has been the Trust’s acting chair since April 2020 when Bernie Morgan stepped down after four years at the helm.
Andrew said: “We are delighted that after a rigorous search and a strong field of candidates we have appointed Lucy to be the Trust’s new chair. Lucy is joining us at an exciting stage as we launch the next phase of our virtual exhibition which celebrates the centenary of Dreamland.”
The Dreamland Heritage Trust’s Virtual exhibition Scenic 100 can be accessed at dreamlandheritagetrust.org.uk/virtual-exhibition
You have to question the competency of a trust that still states that thanet district council is the owner of the dreamland site on its website homepage. But hey who’d expect them to be upto date with such trivial details.
no good will come out of this its obvious
What Dreamland heritage???? As far as I see it’s gone, sold off cheap and not the Dreamland I remember. It will be a housing estate soon just like the rest of Thanet and out of locals price range
Which is probably why they’re employing an architect.
What is the purpose of her role?
To oversee the closing down perhaps.
Seems people are confusing the Trust with the actual owners…..
So she is in charge of nothing than !
It’s called dreamland heritage trust but doesnt own dreamland ?
Dreamland is owned by a hedge fund in a tax haven.
Clearly we can now only celebrate the history of Dreamland because that is all we have left – memories.
Dreamland certainly now has no future as an amusement park – more especially that the rides continue to be sold off and the two main attractions which have incidentally been rebuilt in recent years are redundant due to maintenance and safety costs.
The site continues to lose money hand over fist and the TDC agreement for no change of use for 10 years will hold no water when the planning application for housing is submitted due to current national planning policy giving automatic approval for housing unless there is overwhelming reason to refuse. The fact that Dreamland has lost millions and is clearly unsustainable is the overwhelming reason to approve.
I am just surprised that the planning application has been so slow in coming forward . . .
The owners will have to go through the charade of trying to make it look as though they want to give dreamland a future as a theme park. Whilst doing so they’ll be able to show that both no one wants it as such and that they can’t make it finacially viable.
The heritage trust wil be in on the act using weasel and wallpaper words to explain away the collossal waste of public money and terminal council incompetency over the years , then when new plans are introduced try and show how development on the land to the rear will allow the “jewel” in dreamlands crown to be saved.
In the meantime the closure of the wintergardens and theatre royal later this year will give dreamlands owners an open goal in terms of developing the old cinema into a mixed performanc/ exhibition/ conference space knowing that they have no competition (plus access to the 4 million matched funding).
The eventual development proposal as noted above will be hard to stop and will likely include substantial amounts of social housing to help tdc feel like they are doing the right thing.
There’ll end up being 5 or 6 blocks similar to the one right at the back of the site, half social housing half private.
Once planning is approved the development site will be sold off and the rest of the park left on the market. What ever happens to the Nayland Rock and Arlington will largely rely on conditions tdc make regarding any development consent.
The site owners will know thatnthe council will not want another Pleasurama fiasco dragging on for years and years and so can push hard for what they want.
Another thanet snafu slowly coming to fruition.
Lastly there’s the legal situation over the original cpo which seems to have been rumbling away in a quiet corner and will eventually need to be settled and assuming the council needs to cough up it’ll be another chunk of cash thrown away.
I thought dreamland was up for sale?
They need to become transparent for all to understand what their intentions are as conspiracy theories will be rife. As they are not stating anything for anyone to understand then the conspiracy theories will hold a lot of weight.
There seems to have been a big plan, still in progress, between Dreamland and TDC to rip as much money out of it as possible. The cheap sell off with not enough to cover outstanding debts to former owners, the car park thrown in for under market value. The £4 million+ of public money through the convenience of Dreamland CEO getting on the Margate Town Deal board. Plenty to talk about. Who is watching over all this?
The Dreamland Trust is a charity, which came about from the ‘Save Dreamland Campaign’SHL are the current owners, The Trust is there to promote the historical side of Dreamland, although they have and do work together, the trust has no input of day to day running or decision making of the park.