Dream surfacing for Dreamland, Margate

Sitting on the Southeast coast, Margate retains its traditional, holiday-town charm and is home to, what’s thought to be, Britain’s oldest amusement park – Dreamland.

In its original form, the ‘Hall by the Sea’ was opened in the 1860’s by showman and circus proprietor George Sanger. It was renamed Dreamland and turned into a theme park in 1920 by its new owner John Iles.

You can read the full and colourful history of Dreamland here, but we’re going to fast forward to September 2013 when Thanet District Council bought Dreamland with a compulsory purchase order.   Following £7m investment and a brief, unsuccessful re-opening in 2015, the rides at Dreamland fell quiet once more.

Two years and £25m later and it’s a thrilling start for Dreamland’s latest opening!

Investment in the theme park has seen the addition of an outdoor event space accommodating 15,000 people, a new food court, an elevated walkway and more than 1,000 new trees.

The big plans for Dreamland began with a range of Halloween activities for everyone and its intention is to become the number one destination for Christmas in Kent.

Crowds will be lured by first class music events in the new 15,000-capacity outdoor venue and food and drink catering for all tastes; from the East coast of America to East Asia.

Dreamland needed a good looking external surface that was also durable enough to cope with the expected increase in footfall and practical to look after.

We were contracted by Careys PLC for a resin bound installation that included the area around the Helter Skelter, pathways, the food court and outdoor stage area and the roof of the toilet block creating a balcony.

We began this substantial installation in May and completed it in October.   Dreamland now has a ‘dream’ surface ready for all the upcoming events!