The main aim of Stories From Scarborough was to celebrate former seaside attractions in creative ways, and many people have helped with this process by contributing memories, information, photographs and opinions.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far!
The Facebook site is still active, but no longer monitored.
Please get in touch if you would like to share memories or information, or leave a comment on the relevant page and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
I am currently looking for a choir/singers and musicians/band to perform a series of songs inspired by the project, so please get in touch if you know anyone who might be interested.
Please also see the disclaimer for the project.
Stories From Scarborough 
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Hi, I don’t know if this project is still going/active, but I wanted to say I think this is a really good idea. I’ve been holidaying in Scarborough from around 1989, almost every year, and remember very well visiting Kinderland, Mr Marvels, Atlantis, the Corner Café, the Miniature Railway, and Scarborough Attractions, through my childhood.
I still holiday in Scarborough when possible, and often look at area’s, and think how they have changed. Someone needs to record the memories of these places, gathered together, and I think you are doing a brilliant job.
Thanks Mark! And yes, the project is very much still active – I’m updating the site each week and have got lots more content to add.
I’d love to hear more about your memories if you have any stories/pictures etc you’d like to share – particularly about Atlantis (rides/slides, themed areas etc) and the Corner Cafe (which I’m thinking about adding to the archive). Basically any details at all are useful – I want to record as much information as possible whilst there are still people who remember the attractions. All contributions are confidential, and I don’t publish anything here/online without asking permission first.
My email is coggeroo@hotmail.com if you’d like to share any memories, or know anyone else who might have stories/info. Otherwise thanks for visiting the site!
Hi Sarah. Well, health problems have left my memory a little fuzzy at the moment, but I would be happy to share via email with yourself. It will mostly be stories and memories, for the moment… I’d have to find my old photo’s, and ones my mum took, to send those across!
I shall email you shortly, hopefully I’ll be able to provide something useful. Scarborough is somewhere that is very close to my heart, and reading on here, about all the places that have been sadly lost, has been very interesting. I shall continue to keep an eye on here, now.
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I have many beautiful memories of scarborough but cannot seem to find any photographs of the tree walk with the wonderful coloured story boards of nursery rhyme charactors etc.
Thanks for commenting Sue – if you’d like to share any more details of your Scarborough memories (particularly relating to the tree walk or any of the other attractions I’ve listed under the ‘Places’ page) then I’d love to hear from you. My email is coggero@hotmail.com.
Thank you
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Hi Sarah, congratulations on this website – a valuable resource for all Scarborians and others who love it like we do. I was born and raised in Scarborough until the age of 23, when I moved to Devon. I still visit several times per year as family is still here and love the place still. despite the dramatic changes mostly to the towns detriment sadly.
I visited the “Madhouse” in 1980 with friends and it was a dark, slightly chaotic interior, with uneven floors, dead ends and mirrors. It was also gained a reputation for attracting slightly “naughty” children who hung out there for long periods and was certainly a favourite destination to cavort with girlfriends / boyfriends in the dark!
I also visited the “Funhouse” in my very early years with my Dad. This building was to the left of the Olympia site and cliff lift and has been a small car park since the late 60’s / early 70’s, after the building burned down. The black & white floor tiles can still be seen on the ground there. My memories of the Funhouse are very limited, as I was only about 4 or 5 but I distinctly remember it having a high ceiling and being a fairly big room inside with various toys / simple rides. I played on a long, rolling wooden cylinder (like a large rolling pin!) which was mounted on a rod and rolled around and around and was very difficult to stay on, hence the entertainment.
The Tree Walk was without a doubt, my favourite childhood memory of Scarborough and I constantly pestered my parents to take me. Even now, 45 years later, when I visit Scarborough I still stand outside the now locked gates to the Peasholm Park island and look longingly across the bridge, remembering those summer evenings scampering excitedly with my Sister around a dark path, dotted with glowing animals and fairies peeking from the undergrowth and halfway up trees. I would press my nose up against the glass of the animated friezes, with themes such as the “Flea Circus” with it’s apparently self-bouncing trampolines and high-wire walkers. The walk wound its’ way around the island, eventually reaching the lighted red and gold painted Chinese Pagoda at the summit of the hill, with the rushing noise of the waterfall generator filling your ears and distant views of the town glimpsed between the trees. Magic.
Bring it back Scarborough Council!
Thank you Chris – I really enjoyed reading your comment, and appreciate all the information you’ve provided, especially in terms of clarifying more about the Funhouse attraction. I certainly agree that more could be made of Scarborough’s colourful history, and I only hope that by recording it here, someone influential might find a way to incorporate some of these wonderful ideas into new attractions or developments.
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
I have wonderful memories of the 1950s travelling on the miniature train to Scalby mills. There was a childrens talent contest. We made many good friends. Better than Facebook. That was real life and real friends. Sailing on the Ispaniola on the mere. Hours rowing on peaseholme lake. The floodlight evening walks through the trees. The sea battle on the lake. The outdoor swimming pool always cold but who cared. It was a magical world never to be forgotten. Eat your heart out Costa brava.
Thank you for sharing your memories – it’s always lovely to hear from people who remember the attractions I’m documenting on this site.
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Thought you might be interested to know that someone recently set up a FB page Scarborough Friends Reunited and it is full of memories and photos from the past
Thanks Sally I will take a look…
I have things about our beloved town to ask. Firstly does anyone know the history of the cells and the police station that was at the Tunny Club?. Was there a special reason that the Mere was left unkempt and why did the Hispaniola stop. It was very popular. Thanks
Hi Simonne,
Thank you for your comment. I haven’t researched the Tunny Club I’m afraid – but I’ve written more about the Hispaniola here:
https://storiesfromscarborough.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/voyage-of-the-hispaniola/
Although it stopped sailing on the Mere in 1993 it later moved to the South Bay. This archive is a work in progress – so as time goes on I will hopefully be in a position to add more information.
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Thankyou for your input. Its kind for you to tell me.
. Simonne.💐
Hi Sarah,
Spent a dozen fortnights in Scarborough in the 1960s and 1970s. Lots of brilliant memories. Firstly, the Funhouse. The spinning disc that spun you off was called the devil’s
disc and was notorious for giving friction burns to uncovered limbs. It actually burnt down
in the last week of July 1975 while I was staying at a caravan at Wallis’s holiday camp, Cayton Bay. There was also an astroglide inside and a sheer drop slide. Other attractions including spinning barrel very similar to those in the late Blackpool House of Fun – some surviving footage of the Bpl FH on youtube.
I remember the Madhouse well which was a myriad of dark tunnels. In the 1970s there were two or three waxwork exhibitions on the Foreshore and sandside themed on Chamber of Horrors with various torture chambers and monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein. Some exhibits were rather tacky but still atmospheric in the labyrinthic darkness. One exhibition was situated
just round the corner of sandside about 100 metres away from the former Corrigans Ghost Train.
I believe it is now also an amusement arcade but in the 1960s the building was used as an
exhibition centre for ‘the headless woman’ and also ‘the woman in the goldfish bowl’, both
optical illusions.
Peasholm tree wonderland included an illuminated carousel, Indians in wigwams,
cowboys, and a huge turning nursery rhyme book containing four or so turning pages telling the story of Humpty Dumpty and the Hey Diddle Diddle.
All the best
Alan (Guisborough)
Thanks Alan for sharing such detailed memories! This is great. Do let me know if you remember anything else…
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Sarah
I have some pictures of the dolphin show in Mr Marvels (before it was closed down due to animal rights issues as the pool was much too small. Would you like them?
Hi Chris,
Thanks for getting in touch – I would love to share more images of Marvels on the website, so if you are happy to share your pictures that’d be amazing. My email is coggeroo@hotmail.com if you want to email them – anything you send would of course be fully credited.
Many thanks once again,
Sarah
The BEATLES at The FUTURIST THEATRE – 09/8/64 – Please help me find a copy of the poster or flyer, or anything connected with this iconic gig for my very good friend, Brian Hatt, who was in the support band, CANDY CHOIR, & even leant the Beatles his PA etc as his was far better than theirs & the best in the business at the time! Brian also did the sound for the gig; it turned out to be his first as a Sound Engineer in what would be a career in the music business that spanned over 60 years!…Brian went on to innovate, develop & co-found Orange Amps, Studios & Recordings; working with everyone from Stevie Wonder, to Hot Chocolate; from Alfie Boe to Paul Anka (who wrote “She’s a Lady” & put the finishing touches to a “little tune” called “My Way” with Brian at the Studios!) He was the only Sound Engineer such huge names as Ike & Tina Turner (& latterly Tina when solo), Cliff Richard & the Shadows, Dave Brubeck, The Three Degrees, Don McLean etc. etc would use, worldwide, for decades!
Brian turns 80 years young on 08/5/18 & we are collating a book of messages & memorabilia of his awesome life in music for him….we have already had responses from the likes of Sir Cliff, & it would be amazing if we could incorporate something from the Beatles gig in your town!
I really hope you are willing & able to help me in my quest! (or at least pont me in the right direction! (I have e-mailed the Scarborough website already) You can e-mail a7 – keithnheatherok@sky.com or write to me at – 48 County Road, Penygroes, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL54 6EY.
I thank you for taking the time to read this & sincerely hope you are in a position to help me!
Thank you, in anticipation,
Heather Wood x
Hi Heather,
So sorry for the delayed reply – for some reason I have not received email alerts for any of the comments this year. Unfortunately I don’t have much on the Futurist at present but I would suggest contacting Scarborough Library and the museum, as they might have relevant material in their respective collections. I will have a think and if I can come up with anything else I’ll let you know.
I wish you the best in your research!
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for getting back to me…much appreciated!
I’ll e-mail the Library & the Museum…will gladly share anything they are able to come up with to your site.
Kind regards,
Heather (enquiring about the Beatles/Candy Choir at the Futurist)
Hi, many thanks for linking to my site at the end of your page on Turkish baths. However, unless you have a particular reason for linking to that particular page you might like to consider replacing the link with one to the page with the illustrations, ie,
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/_6DIRECTORY/AtoZEstab/England/ScarBland/ScarBlandEng.htm
By the way, do you know anything about the other Turkish baths at Scarborough, those at Ramshill Road in 1890. All I have is on this page:
http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/0pixmonthly/pix/2007/0705SouthCliff_w.htm
Enjoying your site. malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org
Hi there,
So sorry for the delayed reply – for some reason I have not received email alerts for any of the comments this year. Of course I will update the link. Apologies for the mistake – I’ve not updated the site in some time due to working on other projects. Need to get back on top of this!
Unfortunately I’ve not got much on the other Turkish baths right now, although if I remember rightly there may be some relevant materials in the collection at Scarborough Library. If I lived nearer I’d go back and check but I haven’t been based there since 2015…
Best wishes,
Sarah (Stories From Scarborough)
Hello Sarah,
I am fairly new in town, there’s a couple of Scarborough stories gathering moss on my wordpress tomb. No, it is a vibrant community :). I like your website, I like the idea of interactive & performance – I’ve done some of that.
all the best, Mat
Hi Mat – I’ll have to check out your Scarborough stuff, do you have a link? Alas I don’t have much time to add much new material to this site these days since I’m working on other projects, but when I finally have more time I’d love to develop it a bit more again.
Hello Sarah,
there’s lots on the blog and is all very silly stuff:
https://drysailorboy.wordpress.com/2018/04/29/cats-of-skaboeuff/
ermh, early write, y’know 🙂
As an early teen I was able to participate in a swim race at the open air theatre on Wednesday evenings as part of a show for visitors. !955-1957. If we did well we were paid with cash vouchers from the council. My older brother and a female cousin also participated in a number of activities…… greasy pole over the water…… punt fighting with long sticks with padded ends…… water polo, Scarborough team vs Visitor teams. My recollection was that the visitors won every time at the last minute. I have seen no information about this event at the Open Air Theatre?
Dave Richardson, Victoria BC Canada. April 5 2021
Hi Dave – I know they hosted It’s a Knockout at the OAT (which was also competitive physical team challenges) so maybe a forerunner of this? Sounds fun though! When I was originally researching this I couldn’t find much about the 1950s onwards, but maybe other readers might remember something?
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I remember the Funhouse/Madhouse. There were some weird goings on in there.
Can anyone remember someone jumping from the cable cars in the late eighties?
I have fond memories of Scarborough kindaland Mr marvels and the dolphins and climbing on the dinosaurs and peasholme park with it’s tree walk on the island and the boats and the naval warfare displays and the water slides great times shame kids of today can’t go on the rides and attractions that were once there if I had billions I would try and make Scarborough great again
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