Wednesday 3 February 2010

The Snail Rides Out at Dreamland




The Haunted Snail was one of the most enduring of Dreamland's attractions, and was adjacent to the ever-popular 'River Caves' attraction (acquired from the 1924 Empire Exhibition at Wembley) which was finally demolished in 1984. The Snail, with its Cheshire cat-like grin, was a memorable feature of Dreamland, and orignally cost £4,000 to construct. It features momentarily in Lindsay Anderson's 'O Dreamland' of 1953. This un-dated snapshot shows Reuben Bolland  and an unknown subject outside the entrance to the Haunted Snail. Bolland worked at Dreamland, then later at the Kursaal in Southend, where, Paul Bolland, his grandson believes, he became chief engineer and electrician. The fate of the Snail, however is known; it perished in a fire in June 1957, and was replaced on the site by the equally-enduring 'Sphinx', which remained until the late 1980s, well into the Bembom era of the park.

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