Pleasureland Southport to Close FOREVER!

[eggzter]

Gutted

i took my 3 year old son there earlier this year and he had a blast, now he wants to go every week.

any advice on how i can tell him there gona close it.

He's so gonna miss the coin operated trains, and the caterpillar, lol he loved em,

[cfc]

This is a damn shame. The fun house wheel really made me fell like a kid again (just like the one at Santa Cruz back in the 1970s). The Cyclone was a good ol' woodie, and King Solomon's Mines was completely nuts--rough in a good (bordering on bad) way.

 

Goodbye, Southport. Glad that TPR gave me the chance to check ya out.

[Juggler]

It is a sad, sad day when the birthplace and Spiritual home of The BlueBuzzards Flying Scooter Display Team meets its end.

 

To be honest it wasn't unexpected as the management at BPB had been running the place down for ages and apart from Traumatizer had not exactly invested great lumps of money in the place. So why are we surprised that there was a decline in visitors?

 

For myself and other Scooter fans the really important thing will be the relocation (hopefully) of the Mistral, only Knoebels' Flyers rank higher in my book. Of course if they do move and are brought back to life then that'll be one park that gets an annual visit from us all in the Buzzards, if not more if it's close enough! (Note to any potential buyers The Buzzards will happily turn up and endorse the ride on it's opening )

 

The worrying thing is the fate of The Cyclone as that is one ride that I can't see travelling well if at all. King Solomans was relocated to Southport so we all know that CAN be moved but as for the rest of the rides I don't see much of a future (TraumaTizer is almost certainly on the move).

 

To all the staff who are now frantically seeking new jobs I wish you all the very best.

[coasterdude5]

It's sad to see pretty much any park close, I wonder where the SLC will go.

[chavslayer]

^ The SLC will probably go to Blackpool.

[scorchedflower]

^ I'm not bothered about the SLC, there's loads of clones of them. But Cyclone was an ACE coaster classic and one of my favourites.

[robbalvey]

^ While it having an "ACE Coaster Classic" status means less than zero to me, it will be a bummer to see it go. I mean, where else other than PGA's Grizzly can you see a coaster take the first turn around THAT slow?

 

Seriously though, I honestly don't see either woodie being saved. I see the SLC, the Space Shot, Pirate Ship, Chaos, and maybe the Flyers.

 

Beyond that, do they even have that many decent flat rides that are less than 10 years old and that would add much "value" to any other park? The way they've let that park deteriorate in the past few years there just doesn't seem to be much value to the rides that are left.

 

--Robb

[scorchedflower]

^ Yeah I'm with you, the ACE atatus doesn't really mean that much, most old woodies seem to have them. But it was the first woodie I ever went onand I shall really miss it.

[coasterdude5]

The reason I asked about the SLC is because, IMO, Jazzland's SLC that was never built saved Magic Springs. While they might be painful, the general public is drawn to them.

[captain]

I`m really sad that another park has to go.

 

We visited the Pleasureland about one moth ago and thought it was really okay, but of course not a top park (you`ll find a full TR with photos from our big UK Tour including Pleasureland in our www.coasterfriends.de/forum , but at the moment just in german - english will follow here at TPR).

 

I think it`s a bit strange decision because they`ll open a new waterpark next door 2007 and the other park near Southport is Camelot, which is scheduled to close in the next 5 to 7 years (told by the head of Camelot in an interview).

 

So Good Bye Pleasureland!

[scorchedflower]

^^ Yes they are very popular, or there wouldn't be so many of them... but personally I find them painful and a bit dull, compared to Nemesis

[DerekRx]

Kinda sad to see the park go away. On our last visit prior in 2002 the place was really cool, had an almost mini-Blackpool feel. On this last trip though, I was pretty much done with the place after it actually opened, or no more than 30 minutes later.

 

Too bad Knoebels is busy building their own vintage woodie, there's now a wooden mouse available. Of course, they could always put it in storage for a few seasons...

 

Good bye King Solomon's Mines, my 30th coaster

[Carnage]

^ While it having an "ACE Coaster Classic" status means less than zero to me,

 

But it's also the #1 wooden coaster in the world according to some random UK enthusiest.

 

Surely that has to be worth something.

[Meteornotes]

I'm not shocked by this. The park was in pretty sad shape during our visit. Other than the funhouse, there wasn't much there worth getting excited about. We were pretty much done with the place about an hour after it opened.

 

It would be cool if the funhouse was relocated.

 

dt

[Scaparri]

That's a bit disappointing. I was hoping to visit next summer. Oh well. Hopefully most of the rides find better homes seeing how a lot of people have been mentioning that the park wasn't in great condition.

[niiicolaaah]

OK, I hope nobody jumps down my throat but... am I the only one who's not sad to see this park go? I mean, it's never GOOD when a park closes down but honestly... I didn't think it was anything special. The most entertainment I had that day was when I watched Dave and Mary bowl. Or the crazy sounding hand dryer.

[WillMontu]

I recall King Soloman's Mines and possibly Cyclone having signs indicating each as "National Historic Marker". Does this have any effect on whether the rides are saved or not, knowing the UK is strict about "listed buildings"

 

Where are we going to go now for:

A pizza/pasta buffet

The best named SLC anywhere

The flavoured condom vending machines

Bill's first S&S tower

Racing coin-op trains

The Dinosaur ride

The Wacky Worm with a tongue stud

A woodie with a crooked lift hill

The blue water fountain (a departure from the green water in most of the log flumes we went on in the UK)

The funhouse, complete with death rides and even a donkey

[ColinM]

not to 'jump down the throat' at all!! - but yeah... I suppose to anyone loosing a local park its a blow, especially when there are so few wooden coasters & seaside resorts left in this country.

 

Of course, as rides & parks go P/land was pretty crap! But it did have a lot of rare old stuff - and its always sad to loose those kinda things...

 

P/land was the main reason most people visited Southport, the town will seriously suffer without it, and its not that the park 'wasn't viable'... because it was! Morecambe is in a sorry state now to, thanks to the 'quick demolition to avoid the protests' - which could now happen to S/port to.

 

Its the terrible attitude displayed by the Blackpool Pleasure Beach company thats the 'blow' for me... that staff letter is really bad! - Yes!, thats business for ya!, but its still nasty when you consider that people have worked there 40yrs+, and all they got was a letter & sent home one afternoon...

[robbalvey]

OK, I hope nobody jumps down my throat but... am I the only one who's not sad to see this park go? I mean, it's never GOOD when a park closes down but honestly... I didn't think it was anything special.

What I was more sad about was to see how gone the park already was when we got there this year. I had heard rumors about BPB wanting to get rid of the place and that visit we had pretty much in my mind "sealed the deal."

 

I do agree that it's always sad to see any local park go, but quite honestly there are ones that are just beyond repair and NEED to be taken off life support.

 

Pleasureland was not a park I thought I'd ever see get to that point. Having spent many a days there over the past 10 years (at least 7 or 8 different visits) and for an out-of-towner I've had the chance to see the park go from a collection of rides brought in from a number of different vendors, to a free admission BPB owned park, to a pay-one-price park, and I really thought the park would end up improving instead of devolving.

 

That's what bums me out. But sad to see it go in it's current state? Not really. It was a nice little side-trip from BPB, but I have a feeling there are other options.

 

Hell, I wouldn't have minded spending a few hours at Sand Castle this past visit!

 

--Robb "I had a similar feeling from Drayton Manor from this year's visit to previous visits..." Alvey

[ColinM]

It was a nice little side-trip from BPB, but I have a feeling there are other options...

yeah - I see you're talking aboput Gullivers!

I used to work there... you ever been?!

I suppose you could have some fun, esp as there's 3 credits for ya! but really, Gulliver's parks are completely home-made, with the exception of a few, cheap, Italian kiddie rides! and it shows!

[robbalvey]

^ I was at Gullivers the year Antelope opened. Strange place. We considered going there on our Southport day, and what still frustrates me to this day is that we were told the night before our visit that all the major Southport attractions would be open for us, and when we got there at least three of them were closed, some of them for quite a while so it wasn't like they had just gone down that day. Had we been given better information, we would have made some last minute schedule changes and made a quick stop into either Gullivers or Camelot.

 

--Robb

[eggzter]

Both Gullivers and camelot are great parks if ya got young children, my son loves em both, however i feel there isnt an awful lot of good stuff for the older more mature ride enthusiast like we have here

 

if it came to a choice for a side trip it would have to be camelot, at least they got a maur shone spinner with the same track layout as the 1 they building in DLP but without the extended bits, if ya know what i mean.

 

 

 

.

[Mr Pete]

How Disappointing

Ohhh that what happen and not all this crap about Health & Safety, which mostly everyone said all this year.

 

That's what was originally told to myself and the Juggler when we visited earlier in the year, Juggler sent an email to the park and that's how we found out the real reason why it was closed.

[Divv3k]

Now for the news everyone was waiting to hear...

 

The Funhouse will remain OPEN!!! Ok so you'll need to travel to a parkless Southport to visit it but it's great to see what so many people have called the best part of Pleasureland stay alive.

 

Official announcement is on PLS's homepage: http://www.pleasureland.uk.com/

[HighExtreme]

Just to echo everybodys thoughts, it is shame to loose another seaside park

 

In recent years the real estate value of seaside parks has forced the closure of parks in Scarborough, Morecambe and Margate, all demolished to pave the way for grand new mixed use leisure and residential schemes billed to update the ailing tourism offerings of the historic coastal resorts

 

Yet none of these schemes have delivered, all thats left is big holes in what were still attracting at least some visitors and money into the local economy, it seems nobody has learned any lessons from this and Southport will now make the same mistake