Following the launch of heritage theme park Dreamland in Margate last month 11 years after its closure, Gary Reynolds, director at Ray Hole Architects, has said the development is still “very much a work in progress.”

Ray Hole are part of a group of designers working on the heritage project. Partnered with Hemingway Design, who created the £18m (US$27m, €24m) vintage concept, Ray Hole undertook the logistics of getting a large visitor attraction through planning, building regulations and working with everyone involved to realise the vision.

Speaking exclusively to AM2 Reynolds said that visitors probably wouldn’t get to see the finish product for a number of years as a process of refurbishing and upcycling continues.

"It’s very much a work in progress. Everyone will see it evolve as a visitor attraction, probably over the next few years in all honesty,” he said. “It’s complicated, it’s difficult to bring any visitor attraction to life when you’re trying to deal with rides from different generations and trying to bring them back. Take the scenic railway for example, that’s been literally had to be rebuilt from the ground up to conform to modern day safety standards.”

It’s certainly not been plain sailing for Dreamland. In the last year alone, the heritage attraction – which features Britain’s oldest rollercoaster – suffered a setback after extreme winds blew part of the structure away, while a fire broke out in a suspected arson attack at the theme park, which has battled with a decade of decay and lack of care after closing in the mid-2000s.

“It’s had enormous amounts of complications,” continued Reynolds. “There’s a whole chequered history. You need to take a step back with these things and think it’s amazing that it’s actually happened and will continue to evolve over the next few years.”

A second phase of development, set to be completed later this quarter, includes the opening of the Dreamland Ballroom, Garden Café and an education space, while phase three, coming in October, will debut the Dreamland Dark Space. In Q1 2016, the park will also gain its Hall by the Sea, Sea Café, Buffet Building and an outdoor event space. In addition to new amenities, the theme park is adding new rides including the Grade II-listed 90-year-old scenic railway, which is not yet open to the public, the crazy mouse and the upscaling of more vintage rides.

Part-funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), which awarded £5.8m (US$8.9m, €7.8m) to the Dreamland Trust, the park is part of a larger restoration of Margate, which is currently enjoying somewhat of a renaissance, thanks in-part to the Turner Contemporary which has welcomed more than a million visitors through its doors since opening in 2011.

“Margate is an interesting place,” said Reynolds. “10 or 15 years ago people had written it off. The Turner has had an effect on the local area. It’s amazing, it’s completely transformed it. I think Dreamland will do the same thing. They’re like two bookends within Margate. Having both of those coupled with a high-speed rail connection, it just makes absolute sense to bring it back.

“I think there’s amazing support for Dreamland locally and certainly within the county of Kent. Everyone I speak to about this project, their eyes light up. They’ve all got this sentimental attachment to it and I think what we’ve done is tried to differentiate it and make it into something unique and different. If the support that it’s had so far is a measure of the success it will have in the future, then I think it will be very successful.”

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FEATURE: Heritage – Dream Big