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The architecture of pleasure: British amusement parks 1900-1939

This publication considers the relationship between popular modernity, pleasure and the amusement park landscape in Britain from 1900-1939. It is based largely on doctoral research shortlisted for the RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in 2008.

The book is the first attempt to define, document, and offer an interpretation of amusement park landscapes in Britain. It contextualises the evolution of three sites – Blackpool Pleasure Beach, Dreamland in Margate and Southend's Kursaal – with references to the wider amusement world. The meanings of these sites are explored by examining the spatial and architectural form taken by rides and other buildings, and how they determined visitor experiences. The rollercoaster – a defining symbol of the amusement park – is given particular focus, as is the extent to which discourses of class, gender and national identity were promoted through park design.

Kane argues that the parks were understood as a new and distinct expression of modern times which redefined the concept of public pleasure for mass audiences in the early 1900s. Tracing their development through the interwar period, Kane demonstrates how ‘being modern’ became increasingly qualified by the discourse of New Leisure and Modernist design principles – ideas which signaled the decline of amusement parks in Britain

While new primary research provides the backbone of this investigation, Kane’s interpretive approach is highly interdisciplinary, encompassing histories of film, technology, popular culture and tourism; literary criticism; cultural geographies; cultural theory and, of course, architectural history and theory.

By presenting popular pleasurescapes as a fundamental component in the lived experience of twentieth-century Britons, this book contributes to an emerging cross-disciplinary field which seeks to specify the experience of British modernity more adequately.

Aspects of this research have been presented at various conferences including the Urban History Group (2011), Institute for Archaeologists (2010) and the Design History Society (2007).