YouTube Pick – Kursaal Cyclone Preparations (1956)

The Exposition Universelle et Internationale Bruxelles of 1935 was one of a series of world expo events that saw countries from around the world exhibit in various pavilions alongside food offerings and an amusement midway. The exhibition’s Plaine des Attractions amusement grounds were devised and managed by Leonard Thompson and a number of other Pleasure Beach company associates including Joseph Emberton and Charles Paige.

With the end of the exhibition, the Paige designed ‘Cyclone’ was moved to the Kursaal amusement park at Southend. The Pleasure Beach company would operate the ride there until its closure in 1973.

When it was dismantled the following year, parts were brought to Blackpool, Southport and Morecambe for use on the company’s other wooden roller coasters.

This 1956 video from the British Pathé channel demonstrates that in seventy years, some of the core checks and maintenance procedures on a wooden roller coaster haven’t changed – although much of the approach to health and safety when working at height certainly has!

Note – The same site would later host ‘Expo 58’ (also known as the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair) from April – October of that year. Geoffrey Thompson was working at the fair in the British pavilion. It was this event that inspired Leonard Thompson to build the park’s Cableway in 1960.