On the fateful day, Wales’ residents lost a large and cherished chunk of their childhood.
It used to be the beating heart of the UK seaside town(Image: Jeff Pitt)
Eerily silent, desolate, and derelict — these are the adjectives which best describe what once used to be the beating heart of fun fairs and family days out in Wales.
Bumper cars, merry-go-rounds, roller coasters and spinning tea cups — at the height of its popularity, this seaside amusement park pulsed with energy, as excited revellers had a go at the various rides.
After closure, all that remained for many years were abandoned hunks of rusting metal. Now, a commercialised retail park stands in the funfair’s place.
The Ocean Beach amusement park in Rhyl, North Wales, operated for 53 glorious years between 1954 and 2007. On September 2, 2007, it closed its doors to the public forever, and Wales’ residents lost a large and cherished chunk of their childhood.
Humble beginnings
The Rhyl Ocean Beach funfair first welcomed visitors in the 1890s, after Rhyl began taking off as a holiday resort town following the inauguration of its railway station in 1848. The amusement park was initially situated at Marine Lake and saw thousands of visitors each year.
So meteoric was its rise and popularity, that the funfair had to be relocated to a larger premises in 1954, moving to the west end of the promenade to accommodate larger crowds and bigger rides.
Ocean Beach’s very first claim to fame was its tubular steel rollercoaster — the first of its kind in Britain at the time. An iconic 1950s ghost train, renowned jet stream and a 1930s vintage toy set added to its list of draws.
It was also home to the world’s last surviving circular water chute. The highlight of Ocean Beach, Rhyl, was undoubtedly its renowned Pepsi-Cola loop, standing tall amidst all the other (almost equally) thrilling rides located within the amusement park.
The North Wales theme park was in its prime during the 70s, 80s and 90s, seeing a massive volume of thrill seekers come through its doors.
Why it shut down
Like several other Victorian-era attractions in the UK, Ocean Beach also saw a sharp and dramatic decline in its popularity as the world found itself on the cusp of modernisation in the early 2000s.
Its declining numbers were not helped by the safety incidents either, which further marred the amusement park’s reputation and served it a huge blow.
July 2005 saw a rollercoaster at Ocean Beach leave its tracks, injuring five people in what the park’s management called “the first accident in 40 years”.
One of the rollercoaster’s cars was at the ground level when it was rammed by a car behind it, knocking it off the rails. Prior to the incident, the amusement park prided itself on a good safety record.
Just two years later, in September 2007, with dwindling numbers and decreased popularity in the modern era, owners of the Ocean Beach amusement park in Rhyl ceased operations after failing to secure a sizable investment for new rides.
Harold Robinson, Rhyl Amusements Chief Executive, who had first worked at the park as an employee when he was just 12, told North Wales Live: “I have spent all my working life here and it is a very sad thing, not just for me, but for everyone really.
“The funfair was very busy in the 1960s. There were coaches and people coming in from all over the country on trains.
“But business has dropped off in recent years because people;s holiday habits are changing. Funfairs at resorts are becoming non-viable. The cost of keeping rides maintained is too high and footfall is dropping off. I think closing it is the right thing to do for the town.”
State of the funfair now
Today, the Rhyl Funfair sits eerily abandoned, existing only in people’s memories. Most of its rides were left derelict, and pictures illustrate beloved rollercoasters and attractions from the park’s heyday rusting away as they surrendered to Wales’ natural coastal elements.
Over the years, various plans for redevelopment were shared, with none ever really materialising. A retail, house, and leisure complex was due to be built starting May 2009, but plans were eventually delayed and ultimately scrapped.
2015 saw the approval of plans for a retail-only park, Marina Quay, and stores at the abandoned theme park site have since opened in batches from 2017. The entire seafront resort was torn down and a brand-new retail park was erected in its place, with stores like ALDI and Greggs finding homes there.
