When, in 2008, a fire ripped through the Scenic Railway rollercoaster on Margate’s Dreamland site, it was hard to see any way back for the once all-conquering pleasure park. As the flames licked around the listed structure, it resembled nothing short of a funeral pyre for the place. Stuck in limbo – plans at the time proposed it be turned into a lucrative, but far from attractive, housing estate and car park – the blaze was just the latest blow for a town fast becoming a byword for past glories. In fact, fires in former leisure sites had become something of a theme in Thanet at the time. In 19…
