18 C O N T E X T 1 3 0 : J U LY 2 0 1 3 de heritage seaside tage Our seaside heritag Our seaside heritage Ou easide heritage Our itage Our seaside heritage seaside heritage Our seaside herita ANYA CHAPMAN Coasters at the coast Funfairs and their rides are at the heart of the identity of British seaside resorts. Sadly many have closed in recent years, despite some determined efforts to keep them going. What are the key components of a British seaside resort? Many consider the beach with its donkey rides, Punch and Judy shows, beach huts and deckchairs as fundamental to the seaside. Others would think of bracing walks along the promenade, visits to amusement arcades or watching a show at the pier theatre. But this image would be incomplete without the seaside funfair and its roller coasters and helter-skelters; the soundtrack of laughter, music and shrieks of delight; the smell of candy floss, hotdogs and doughnuts. Nevertheless, an increasing number of British seaside resorts now have a gaping hole on their seafronts where their funfairs and amusement parks used to be.This rash of closures inevitably raises questions about the future of the coasters, Ferris wheels and carousels that remain at the coast. Many of the funfairs at British seaside resorts developed from gypsy stalls, menageries and sideshows. Improvements in technology in the early 20th century allowed the development of rides such as flying machines, switchback railways and water chutes. The majority of these embryonic funfairs looked westwards to the great amusement parks such as Coney Island for their inspiration. Coney Island’s Luna Park, Dreamland, and Steeplechase Park were at the forefront of ride development, and by the early 1900s rides such as Hotchkiss bicycle railroads, American carousels, helterskelters, and Brooklyn cake walks had appeared at resorts such as Blackpool and Southport. The Pleasure Beach at Blackpool developed rapidly, and by the onset of the first world war it featured innovative rides such as the River Caves, theWitchingWaves (an early dodgem ride), and the Velvet and Switchback roller coasters. It was during the inter-war years that funfair and ride development began apace. During the 1920s and Pleasure Beach, Blackpool: the InFUSION coaster in the foreground and the iconic Big One in the background Coney Island’s Cyclone coaster, which was granted National Historic Landmark status by the US government in 1991
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