Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside. Preferably Margate, don’t you know? In recent months, this rough-around-the-edges Kent town has proved quite the draw for DFLs (Down From Londons), with bright young things and growing families lured by relatively cheap property prices, enlivening coastal air, and steadily expanding pockets of cultural gentrification – from the vintage shops to the Turner Contemporary.

Change is still relatively slow, with perceived social problems (not least low employment and tensions between the longstanding community and an influx of asylum seekers) not entirely fading from view, despite ongoing efforts at gentrification. But for those day-trippers in search of the traditional British Seaside trimmings – all within a short train ride from Stratford or King’s Cross – Margate just got even more alluring, with the grand reopening, this weekend, of Dreamland.

Once a symbol of the splendour of the Great British Seaside, Dreamland pleasure park was a 1920s gem in the shape of an American-style amusement park. John Henry Iles, who bought the site of an old dance and music hall in 1919, spent some £500,000 (around £15m by today’s value) realising his vision, with the mile-long wooden roller coaster, known as the Scenic Railway, amidst the pleasure gardens and amusements.

Sadly, as tastes changed, Dreamland fell out of fashion and the once opulent grounds crumbled into disrepair – finally closing its doors in 2003, before a series of arson attacks added a new chapter to its evolving history. All that seemed a world away, though, as the gates were finally opened on the next chapter on Friday…

Following an 11-year campaign the space has been painstakingly restored to its former glory by a relentless team under the supervision of designer Wayne Hemingway (co-founder of Red or Dead and chairman of the South Coast Design Forum) and Dreamland director Eddie Kemsley, whose illustrious back-catalogue includes the transformation of KOKO nightclub in London’s Camden Town. Generating 250 local jobs in the process, they have transformed the site into a vintage-themed pleasure park, oozing with colour and energy, and boasting “a host of stylishly restored, recreated and retro-fitted rides and amusements from the golden age of British seaside holidays”.

Those who queued around the block for the grand opening of this much-anticipated revival were met with a roller disco, rides including the park’s original Gallopers carousel, not to mention the Wall of Death: a belief-defying act originally opened at Dreamland in the 1960s, under proprieties Yvonne Stagg. Back with a vengeance, the Wall of Death sees daredevil motorcyclists speeding around the walls of a cylindrical auditorium – at times without hands, while driving backwards, and rising to within inches of the gasping crowds who watch on from above.

This was, undoubtedly, the highlight of my children’s trip to Dreamland (our daughter concluding that night, after a day of ice-cream, stomach-turning rides and building sandcastles in the rain: “that was the best day ever, better than any other day I’ve been to” – before being promptly sick). Our son, just 20 months old, practically dislocated his jaw as his mouth fell open in amazement at the spectacle of the Wall of Death.

For me, it was too much; and I could be found at the end of the show, nerves shredded, in one of the oversized deck chairs at the foot of the nearby helter skelter. Thankfully for heavily-pregnant pussies like myself, the food area, offering delicacies from traditional fish and chips to American style burgers – with seating made from the original scenic railway, which has been restored and will open later this summer as part of the ongoing launch of Dreamland – offered some consolation.

Over the course of the next few months, the staggered re-opening – which will run over four or five phases – will see this carefully-curated space grow into the home of cabaret and performance, with events this coming August ranging from a family rave from Big Fish Little Fish to a DJ set by Mike Skinner. With an education space, outdoor event space and Dreamland Ballroom all on the agenda for the next stage, work has already begun on the restoration of the old cinema building, with the aim of returning the building to its former glory. Watch this space!