While in Margate I paid a long awaited visit to Dreamland, Margate’s ‘pleasure park’, which has recently been rebranded, refreshed and reopened earlier this year, as an homage to the park’s glory days. The new look for Dreamland is on point – keeping that hand painted old fairground style but using super clean lines and block colour have made for a really successful modern rebrand. There was free entry for the park over the Christmas period, but usually there is an entry fee – which apparently they are rethinking, as many people think it is too high (around £17). Personally I wouldn’t pay that much, but then again I didn’t really visit to go on the rides, more to have a snoop around!

The park has all the usual fairground rides – dodgems, the waltzer, a ferris wheel etc, and their wooden rollercoaster ‘The Scenic Railway’ which sadly burnt down a few years ago, has now has been rebuilt with new wood to the exact same track that was designed in the 1920s! Back in the day it was actually the oldest wooden rollercoaster in Europe, and the big ‘Dreamland’ signage at one of the park’s entrances is actually made from old bits of the wooden track, which is really cool idea.

There’s an inside area too with a pizza parlour, arcade and an awesome old-school roller disco! I really loved all the signage used; the fluro neon pizza signage was a firm favourite, and the stylised roller disco gives you a good idea of what the place used to be like in the sixties. Past the arcade there is an open area with some of the history of Dreamland, as well as a great gift shop (always the best part!). I came away with an ‘I love Margate’ mug, and a Dreamland magnet (cute) to remind me of the experience.

All in all, I really enjoyed walking around Dreamland, and the Christmassy feel they have created there. I definitely will be going back when it’s warm and trying out a few rides, eating some candy floss, and landing flat on my bum in the roller disco…summer 2016 watch out!