Introduction

1 Fair grounds for debate: Celebrating the heritage of amusement parks

JASON WOOD

PART I Development of the amusement park in Britain

2 Mechanical pleasures: The appeal of British amusement parks, 1900–1914

JOSEPHINE KANE

3 From Battersea to Alton Towers: In search of the Great British theme park

IAN TROWELL

PART II International case histories

4 The heritage of public space: Bondi Beach, Luna Park and the politics of amusement in Sydney

CAROLINE FORD

5 The Turkish amusement park: Modernity, identity and cultural change in the early republic

JASON WOOD AND B. NILGÜN ÖZ

6 Knott’s Berry Farm: The improbable amusement park in the shadow of Disneyland

GARY CROSS

7 The dilemma of the crowd: Atlantic City’s Steel Pier, George Hamid, and leisure and urban space in post-civil rights America

BRYANT SIMON

8 The Parque de Atracciones de Vizcaya, Artxanda, Bilbao: Provincial identity, paternalistic optimism and economic collapse, 1972–1990

JOHN K. WALTON

PART III Cultural significance, revival and heritage protection

9 Last night of the fair: Heritage, resort identity and the closure of Southport’s Pleasureland

ANYA CHAPMAN AND DUNCAN LIGHT

10 Delivering the dream: Saving Britain’s amusement park heritage and the reawakening of Margate’s Dreamland

NICK LAISTER

11 Designing the past: Implications of a new vision for Dreamland

ELEANOR MCGRATH

12 The designation of amusement parks and fairground rides in England

ALLAN BRODIE AND ROGER BOWDLER