Originally constructed in 1866 as a railway terminus by the Kent Coast Railway Company, the Hall-by-the-Sea was taken over by Spiers and Pond for a period of seven years, and became a place of entertainment that catered to the delights of Margate's residents, as well as for the burgeoning number of day-trippers to the resort who were arriving by sea from London. At the end of the tenure, the railway authorities failed to find a buyer, but it was subsequently purchased by Thomas Dalby Reeve, the ex-mayor of Margate, for a sum of £3,750.00. The property acquired included the Hall premises and some allotments at the rear, On Dalby Reeve's death in 1875, 'Lord' George Sanger took sole ownership of the property, and the site remained in his hands until 1919, when it was bought by John Henry Iles.
Sanger was an illiterate showman of vast business acumen and energy. The son of an itinerant showman, James Sanger whom, it is said served as a press-ganged sailor on Nelson's 'Victory' at Trafalgar, it is claimed that George Sanger's earliest shows featured a flotilla of miniature ships that fired tiny fireworks whilst being towed by goldfish! Sanger, with his brother John, began a travelling circus which toured the United Kingdom. In 1849, he married the celebrated 'Lion Queen' Ellen Chapman. She would later appear in Sanger's circus parade as Britannia, with a live lion at her feet. Wen the circus came to Margate in 1870, Sanger met Reeve, the then-owner of the Hall-by-the-Sea, and the two men entered into a partnership. After Reeve's death in 1875, Sanger became both owner and proprietor. He ran the venue as a music hall and bar, with dances in the evenings, later opening a roller-skating arena to cater for the latest craze then sweeping the country. Installing 8000 square feet of maple flooring, and with daily demonstrations by one 'Professor' Chambers, named 'the Skateorial King', who schooled the more faint-hearted participants in the new art, the skating enterprise was a huge success. Sanger's first enterprising act was to reduce the price of admission to the dancehall from five shillings to one, which resulted in a huge influx of attendees to the Hall-by-the-Sea. He then turned the land behind the Hall into an ornamental pleasure garden, complete with 'ruined abbey' folly, a lake, statuary and, most notably, a menagerie. Sanger's principle motive for the opening of the zoo was as a breeding and training place for the animals he employed in the travelling circus and at Astley's Amphitheatre in London's Westminster Bridge Road, which he had taken over in 1871. He was credited as the instigator of the famous 'Three-Ringed Circus' concept, and introduced the first Wild West shows into England.
Sanger's Hall-by-the-Sea Menagerie occupied the western half of the present Dreamland site. The railway embankment was remodelled into a series of terraces which featured walkways with trees, interspersed with copies of Roman statuary made from cement and painted to resemble marble. Against the western and southern boundary to the park, a wall was built which served to prevent views of the railway line that served the Margate terminus. Against this wall, Sanger built the abbey folly, a groundsman's cottage and three animal cages designed, it is said, to contain live bears. Sections of the wall, a small portion of the cottage and the cages still exist, and were listed in 2009. The cages, which date from the early 1870s, are an extremely rare survival from the Victorian era. The menagerie contained lions, tigers, baboons, leopards and wolves. There was a slaughterhouse behind the main building which was screened by trees. The pleasure gardens contained a series of ornamental lakes, stocked with waterfowl. Tea gardens and refreshment kiosks were situated nearby, and there was also an area given over to amusements such as swing boats, roundabouts and an early waxwork show. At night, the gardens were illuminated with hundreds of Chinese lanterns suspended from the trees, and there were regular firework displays to delight the nocturnal visitors.
Sanger made Margate his home, and he lived there until his death in 1901, when news of his demise made headline news throughout the world. HIs funeral cortege was as elaborate as his circus parades, and he is interred in an elaborate tomb in Margate cemetery, next to which is that of his brother John, which is crowned by an impressive marble Mazeppa stallion.
In 1919, John Henry Iles bought the Hall from Sanger's daughter and son-in-law. An advertising executive with a penchant for brass band music, Iles visited Coney Island in 1906, and was impressed by the brash new face of the pleasure complex as seen there. Particularly taken by the novelty and perceived profitability of the Luna and Dreamland theme parks, he also acquired the European rights to construct scenic railways, which were then very much a feature of the American park experience, and he subsequently built the first at Blackpool's South Shore, quickly followed by that at the Franco-British Exposition of 1908. Iles renamed the Margate site Dreamland and made the Scenic Railway it's thrilling centrepiece attraction. He also had major interests in Yarmouth, Aberdeen and Belle Vue, Manchester, and was responsible for the construction of the Margate Lido in 1926. An early afficionado of greyhound racing, Iles built a stadium in Ramsgate which was demolished only in 2001, and was also actively involved in the promotion of boxing, wrestling, football, zoos and chariot racing. It was his investment in the revival of the British film industry, notably as a major stakeholder in Elstree Studios, that finally lead to his financial downfall in 1938.
No comments:
Post a Comment