AT A GLANCE
Why go?
On Margate's windswept seafront, Dreamland is a vintage-style amusement park that feels plucked from another era. Classic rides and spinning cups turn among old pinball machines and fairground artefacts, while roller skaters circle a disco under the lights and a bijou retro cinema anchors the whole scene. Restored after a Save Dreamland campaign and reopened in 2015, it has become the beating heart of a town now celebrated as one of Britain's coolest seaside destinations.↗↗↗
What makes a visit here so appealing is the blend of nostalgia and energy. The rides are lovingly restored and sized for pleasure rather than thrills, entry is free, and the programme of street food, art installations and live music keeps the site buzzing well beyond the last ride of the day. Whether you come for a family afternoon at the seaside, an evening of roller disco, or a ticketed concert, Dreamland offers a day out that feels authentically and unashamedly British.↗↗
A seaside park with a century of stories
Dreamland is one of the oldest surviving amusement park sites in Britain. Its roots reach back to the railway boom of the early 1870s, when the ground operated as the 'Hall by the Sea', run by the circus impresario 'Lord' George Sanger. Renamed Dreamland in 1920, it was reshaped into a pleasure garden built around the iconic Scenic Railway, and through the mid-twentieth century it thrived as Margate drew Londoners by the trainload for holidays by the sea.
