Kursaal Memories: A History of Southend’s Amusement Park

Product details Publisher ‏ : ‎ Skelter Publishing LLP Publication date ‏ : ‎ 11 April 2003 Language ‏ : ‎ English Print length ‏ : ‎ 112 pages ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0954457307 ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0954457303 Item weight ‏ : ‎ 422 g For much of the twentieth century, the Kursaal of Southend stood as the greatest amusement park in the south of England, drawing thousands of visitors from London’s East End and far beyond. This richly illustrated book traces its remarkable story from its late nineteenth-century beginnings, through its years of popularity and eventual closure in the 1970s, to the fate of its buildings in the 1980s and its long-awaited reopening at the very end of the century. With 160 photographs—many published here for the first time—it offers a vivid and nostalgic portrait of a much-loved place at the heart of Britain’s seaside entertainment history.