Amusement parks are truly odd places to be. Perhaps more so as an adult, they never quite seem the same when you notice the grit and dirt inbetween the colours and the noises that you usually focus on as a child. Pleasureland is no exception; having originally opened in 1913 as a sister park to Blackpool pleasurebeach it has never quite earnt itself any national cult status during its many ups and downs throughout the century. Yet the Ark Speedway, the Ski Jump, the Helter Skelter, the Crazy Cottage aka the Haunted Inn are all memories of attractions that once lured people away from the nearby beach on the northern English coastline. Britain once loved its domestic holiday resorts and people flocked here by their thousands, spending a day in the arcade and building castles in the sand, Pleasureland soon became a staple part of the Southport day-out and year by year it opened during school holidays to greet families from all over the region. The park reached its peak in the 50’s and 60’s and extended its resort in order to build the infamous Southport Zoo which opened in 1967 and eventually displayed 154 species of wild animals and birds including African lions, chimps, gibbons, parrots and reptiles. However, Britain’s holiday culture was soon to change and along with the fate of Blackpool Pleasurebeach, the resort here soon followed suit. Visitor numbers dropped, and the entire industry along the beachfront at Southport became a ghost of its old self. Without the visitors, money inevitably became an issue. In a bid to revive its former glory, the parent resort at Blackpool decided to inherit the biggest rides from Southport in order to boost their own visitors. Soon after the Evening Post received leaked reports by two wildlife experts who visited the zoo at the request of the Captive Animals Protection Society. Europe's leading primate sanctuary blasted conditions two chimpanzees were kept in after photos leaked of them drinking from half empty coke cans, and asked for them to be handed over immediately. The zoo was forbidden to continue housing exotic animals and subsequently closed after its very public humiliation. To make matters worse in the aftermath of the closure, the amusement park introduced entrance fees which further resulted in the downturn of its visitors. Four hundred permanent staff - from white-collar managers to on-site workers – faced an anxious wait to find out if they would be made redundant, and protests gathered to keep it operational, but the park itself was finally closed a year later. Not much is known about the fate of many of the classic rides at Pleasureland, although some have been bought and put into storage for a prospective Dreamland revival project in Margate. Since its original closure, Pleasureland has fought to stand on its feet with a number of private owners striding to keep it open during the peak seasons of the year. I had the opportunity to visit the site after the Christmas season when rumours were going around that the park might not reopen. Many of the outbuildings were boarded shut, and the public areas were in no fit state to welcome children. If anything, the entire resort was reminiscent of exactly what we come to imagine when visiting a British amusement park – not quite a gypsy fairground, yet not quite polished enough to be much more than a meagre attempt at reviving the past. After 11 years the zoo had become completely overgrown, and the areas that animals were given only highlight how eager the town has been to forget it even existed. I left feeling somewhat disillusioned as to why people might still come here, but true to their word the owners once again managed to hide its rough edges and reopened four months later. Adverts on TV branded the slogan “What dreams are made of!”. Perhaps referring to their own rather than anyone elses..
