Over the bank holiday weekend I took a lovely daytrip to the seaside town of Margate in Kent with two of my favourite people. It’s been three years since we last went and the town continues to evolve and expand beyond the ruins of desertion and downward turns. It’s still the town that Primark left, and indeed the Woolworths still sits with its 2007 shopfront unoccupied, but last time the century old amusement park Dreamland was also closed and forlorn and like much of the town shaped by a decaying glamour which I caught on my picture tour here. As more artists move down to the area, and the town continues a regeneration after the building of the Turner gallery in sympathy with its past, Margate is changing. We visited Dreamland, and although at 35 I may not be quite the target audience (best not relay the tale of three grown women atop a Ferris wheel having a decidedly regretful moment) but I have massive heart eyes for this sherbet dibdab writ large. From its sweetshop-seaside-rock colour palette to its fifties typography, the new Dreamland’s is a colour walk of kitsch and nostalgia and a perfect part of the seaside landscape of a famous kiss-me-quick town. I’m a little in love with it. So, today’s Through the Aperture post is devoted entirely to Margate Dreamland and it’s candy floss dream of kitsch. Enjoy!
Bright colourful fun slide
Pastel typography lockers
Vintage fairground rides, chair-o-plane and Ferris wheel
Kiss me quick waltzer in seaside stripes
Eighties typography, funfair ghostsign
Traditional helter skelter
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Wow it looks so amazing, I DEFINITELY want to go here!! Having spent an early 80s childhood living by the sea in North Norfolk, I have none of the love that people often have for seaside resorts but I think as an adult on a trip of nostalgia and kitsch this would be a fun place to visit. Gorgeous photos X
Thanks Lins ? Yes I can only imagine it’s a very different experience to grow up in a holiday resort. Absolutely, Dreamland is definitely as much about a general feeling of past seaside glory days as a reimagining of Margate. It’s worth it for the sherbet colours alone…