THE 1920S were the peak period for rollercoaster manufacture and construction in the United States, which had around two thousand amusement parks by 1920. The rollercoaster boom also spread to Britain, where several famous wooden rides were erected. The business interests of John Iles had flourished since he introduced the scenic railway from the United States in 1907, and in 1920 he opened his first amusement park after acquiring the former Hall-by-the-Sea at Margate and renaming it ‘Dreamland’. The centrepiece of the new park was a large scenic railway, costing £20,000, which had a triple track and a length of 4,000 feet. The ride proved to be immediately popular and in 1921 attracted over a million customers. It still survives, and it is hoped it will form the centrepiece of a new historic rides park. For the Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924, Iles engaged Lot Morgan to build the Giant Safety Racer, which was Britain’s first twin-track racing rollercoaster. In 1929 Iles engaged Harry Traver and Fred Church to build the eye-catching Bobs rollercoaster at Belle Vue, Manchester, based on Church’s Chicago Bobs built in 1924. The Bobs was opened on 22 May 1929 at a cost of £20,000; it was 2,586 feet long and reached a height of 80 feet, with drops of 45 degrees. The cars travelled at over a mile a minute, giving a 90-second ride.
Britain’s premier amusement park, Blackpool Pleasure Beach, continued to lead the way with rollercoaster innovation by adding the Big Dipper in 1923. Constructed under the supervision of William H. Strickler, the Big Dipper was the first rollercoaster in the United Kingdom to feature under-track friction wheels, pioneered by John Miller, which allowed the cars to travel faster and more securely over a steeper, undulating course. Southport had opened the Pleasureland amusement park in 1922, and a scenic railway was provided by Stephen Hadfield. In 1925 he added the Mountain Caterpillar Railway next to the scenic railway, which it dwarfed. The same year, the Giant Racer was opened at Redcar by Anthony Hill, who had made his fortune in the production of steel in Pittsburgh. The ride was designed for the T. M. Harton Company by Erwin Vettel, who also built the Big Dipper at Hill’s Wonderland Amusement Park, Cleethorpes, in 1926.
The Giant Racer was the centrepiece of the Redcar Pleasure Park between 1925 and 1937, before going to Sheerness-on-Sea for one season.
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the resulting Depression of the 1930s led to the closure of many American amusement parks, which also faced competition from the wider range of leisure activities made accessible by the increasing popularity of the motor-car. The British parks largely managed to override the effects of the Depression and employed some of the American rollercoaster designers, including Charlie Paige at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. In 1933 he built the Roller Coaster, using parts of the Velvet Coaster, and followed it up the next year with the Grand National. This ride, named after the famous horse race, was modelled on the Cyclone Racer rollercoaster at Long Beach, California, built by Harry G. Traver in 1930, and had a maximum speed of 40 mph. The ride gave the illusion of having twin tracks, although in reality it had one loop. An application known as the Möbius principle mysteriously transferred the trains from one side of the station to the other at the end of each ride. Both the Roller Coaster and the Grand National had distinctive Art Deco stations designed by Joseph Emberton, whose commissions for the Pleasure Beach included the Fun House and Casino buildings. Paige and Traver went on to design Cyclone rollercoasters for the Southend Kursaal (1936), Southport Pleasureland (1937) and Morecambe Pleasure Park (1939, relocated from the Paris Exhibition). Billy Butlin used Lot Morgan to provide Big Dippers for his Skegness and Littlehampton parks (along with a figure-eight at Felixstowe), and in 1937 the Coronation Thriller was added at Sutton Park, Sutton Coldfield, by Andrew Vettel for the T. M. Harton Company of Cincinnati.
The Big Dipper at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, opened on 23 August 1923, was the first British rollercoaster to feature under-track friction wheels. The ride was extended in 1936 and is still operating today.
Steel rollercoasters first appeared in Britain in the 1930s when Lot Morgan, in association with Double Grip Tubular Steel Amusement Devices Ltd, erected the Steel Stella on Clacton Pier in 1937 and the Cyclone at the Ocean Beach Pleasure Park, South Shields, a year later. The latter, however, proved to be short-lived as it was dismantled in 1940 for its steel to be used in the war effort.
The Grand National wooden rollercoaster at Blackpool Pleasure Beach was erected in 1934 and continues to thrill its customers today. On 20 May 2004 the station was destroyed by fire but the ride was repaired and reopened five months later. The Grand National has a track length of 3,302 feet, a height of 62 feet, and a maximum speed of 40 mph.
Customers enjoying a ride on the scenic railway at Great Yarmouth in the 1920s. The ride was removed to Aberdeen in 1928 and was replaced, along with a figure-eight, by a rollercoaster in 1932.
Although rollercoasters remained the principal attraction in many amusement parks during the inter-war period, a number of new rides were introduced, including the Noah’s Ark, Virginia Reel, Caterpillar, ghost train and dodgems, the last three all small enough also to be used in travelling fairgrounds.
John Iles imported the Caterpillar into Britain and erected one at Margate Dreamland. The Caterpillar consisted of a circular undulating track with a train of cars running around it; as they built up speed, a canopy covered the cars. Unsurprisingly, the ride proved to be very popular with courting couples. The dodgems, a perennial favourite, were developed in 1912 by Max and Harold Stoehrer of Massachusetts. Their patent described the ride as:
Designed by Charlie Paige, the Cyclone was built at Southport Pleasureland in 1937 and remained a feature of the park until its closure in 2006.
The Cyclone steel rollercoaster at South Shields was opened on 27 July 1938 at a cost of £15,000 to a design by Lot Morgan.
an amusement device consisting of a running floor, an electrically charged ceiling structure, a car free to travel around the running floor in any direction, a manually shift-able motor-driven combined guiding and traction unit, and an electrical trolley having a promiscuous travelling engagement with the charged ceiling.
The cars were notoriously difficult to steer, but the joy of bumping into others caused the ride soon to become very popular. George Tonner acquired the rights in 1921 to introduce the dodgems into Britain. In 1928 Joseph and Robert Lusse of Philadelphia had perfected the bumper car we know today, with front-wheel steering that can rotate through 90 degrees, allowing the car to both go forward and backward. The Lusses called the car the ‘Auto Skooter’, although rides of the same name usually consisted of non-bumping cars being driven around an oval track. Other non-bumping car rides included the Autodrome, Brooklands Racer and Speedway.
The Whip was invented by William Mangels in 1914 and consisted of a dozen cars located at the end of flexible arms that suddenly swung in and out, thereby giving the sensation of being on the end of a snapped whip. This example was built at the Kursaal Amusement Park, Southend-on-Sea, in 1921.
The Caterpillar, seen here at the Kursaal, Southend-on-Sea, in the 1920s, was popular with courting couples because it had a canopy that concealed the passengers as it rotated.
A 1920s variation on the River Caves was the Tunnel of Love, which consisted of a boat ride through dark passages, affording its usual clientele of courting couples the opportunity for a kiss and cuddle. The ghost train was a further development of the dark ride pioneered by the River Caves, and received its name when one was opened at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1930. The popularity of the ride endures to this day and its variants include the Haunted Hotel and House of Horrors. The Pleasure Beach later added the Alice in Wonderland and Gold Mine dark rides, and in 2000 built the spectacular Valhalla at a cost of £15 million.
The dodgems have remained popular since their introduction into Britain in the 1920s. This postcard shows an early prototype of the ride at the Kursaal Amusement Park, Southend-on-Sea.
The Virginia Reel dates back to 1908 but was not introduced into the United Kingdom until 1921, when this one was placed at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, where it remained until 1982.
A very popular ride was the Virginia Reel, which consisted of bowls or tubs reeling down a twisting zigzag track, spinning on their chassis. The ride was invented by Henry Elmer Riehl and named after his daughter, Luna Virginia. The first one was opened in 1908 at Luna Park, Coney Island, where Riehl was the superintendent. The first British Virginia Reel was erected at Blackpool Pleasure Beach in 1921 and remained there for sixty-one years until 1982. Great Yarmouth’s Tyrolean Tubs was the last surviving Virginia Reel-type ride in the world. Another ride to incorporate bowls or tubs was the Tumble Bug, which had a train of them running on an undulating rollercoaster-type track.
Another import from the United States was the Noah’s Ark, a type of fun house. The ark consisted of a wooden boat placed upon a rock simulating Mount Ararat. Noah and his family and the animals were placed to look out of the windows of the Ark or positioned on the rocks outside the ride. Inside was a series of passageways and stunts, including moving floors, air blasts, balancing walks, ‘forced perspective’ passages and distorting mirrors. The boat continually rocked to unbalance its customers and create the illusion of being at sea. A Noah’s Ark can still be found at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
The Noah’s Ark fun house has been a feature of Blackpool Pleasure Beach since 1922, although it was redesigned in 1936, when Percy Metcalfe added twenty-four new animals in a flat Cubist style.
An advertisement for the Kursaal Amusement Park, Southend-on-Sea, in 1939, declaring it to be ‘The Greatest Amusement Centre in the South’. The ‘Gems of Joy’ include the water chute, Cyclone rollercoaster, Tumble Bug, Alpine Ride, Whirlwind Racer and Brooklands Racer.