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Construction of modern pleasure palace: Dreamland Cinema, Margate, 1935

Kane’s chapter was commissioned for this book, published as part of the Victoria and Albert Museum / Royal College of Art Studies in Design History: Anthologies series. This output develops research conducted for a Masters degree in Design History and Material Culture (RCA/V&A 2002, Distinction).

Kane explores the role of modernist architecture in British popular entertainment between the wars through a detailed case study of Dreamland Cinema, Margate (Leathart & Granger, 1935). This pioneering entertainment complex, which – in addition to a state-of-the-art supercinema – incorporated a ballroom, restaurants, cafés and other facilities, stood at the entrance to Dreamland amusement park, and is today a Grade II* listed building.

Frequently overlooked by historians of interwar architecture, Dreamland Cinema’s pioneering Modernist form, inspired by German architectural models and illumination techniques, predated the Odeon house style and placed Leathart and Granger at the vanguard of British Cinema design. This chapter contributes to a growing body of work which seeks to reevaluate the significance of ‘other modernisms’ which have been notably absent from Modernist master-narratives of the period.

Combining archival material from local and national archives with careful analysis of the building itself and critical responses to it, this chapter explores the significance of the cinema, both architecturally and in relation to the amusement park and rides which lay behind it. It also considers the expectations and experiences of visitors, situating Dreamland Cinema within the wider context of British leisure and society during the interwar years. Kane argues that the opening of the cinema marked a pivotal moment in the history of Dreamland and its transformation from provincial seaside amusement park to modern pleasure complex of national repute.