A new photography exhibition in Scarborough by Paul Wilson is taking visitors on a nostalgic journey through the vibrant history and gradual decline of the beloved Mr. Marvel's Amusement Park.
A new exhibition exploring the history and eventual decline of a beloved former Scarborough attraction has opened its doors.
Titled 'Marvels: The Carnival Is Over', the showcase runs from the 16th to the 30th of May at The Shakespeare Gallery, located opposite the Market Hall. The exhibition forms part of the Big Ideas by the Sea Festival and is billed as a Scarborough 400 event.
Created by local photographer Paul Wilson, the display revisits Mr. Marvel's Amusement Park, a once-vibrant destination that was filled with laughter and the delighted screams of children until the lights dimmed and the machines finally fell silent in 2002.
Mr Wilson had previously captured images of the park for the Scarborough Tourist Guide during the years leading up to its closure. His early photographs document giant fibreglass dinosaurs with children climbing over them, a colourful Noah's Ark, and the park's chairlift:
"I used to go to all the events roundabout and one of them was Marvel's. I carried on taking the pictures after Marvel's had closed and the actual breaking down of the place, because people keep saying, you know, 'Mr. Marvel's. Oh, I remember that,' you know, and we had great times there as children and it was all really nice up there, but then what's happened to it now, people say? Well, I've been taking photographs of it since 2007, five years after it closed until last week up there. The exhibition obviously takes you through the time of it being open and to the state it's in now."
Following the park's closure, Mr Wilson began returning to the abandoned site regularly from 2007, searching for and photographing the remnants left behind. His images captured scattered relics of the attraction's vibrant past, including a dinosaur's leg, an old stall game, and a child's sunglasses.
According to the exhibition's event page, the landscape of the site changed significantly in 2015 when construction began on the nearby Alpamare water park. Soil excavated for the new swimming pools was relocated onto the Marvel's site, covering a large area where the outlines of sideshows, kiosks, and walkways had once stood.
Fortunately, Mr Wilson had documented much of the area before these remnants disappeared. Since then, he has continued to record the site, capturing both nature's steady reclamation and the damage caused by vandalism.
Today, the former amusement park is largely inaccessible. Access from the Scarborough Open Air Theatre area has been sealed off with a metal fence, originally installed to prevent people from entering for free during concerts, leaving the cliff top as the only way in.
The exhibition has already sparked fond memories from visitors who recall the park's eccentric entertainment.
Mr Wilson said he enjoyed the illusions the attraction used:
"They had a cannon, a human cannonball and they used to but it was two twins that they dressed exactly the same and they'd put one of the twins inside the cannon and fire it in a big puff of smoke and then the other twin would pop up across the park at the other side. A lady came into the exhibition last weekend and she said, oh my husband used to be the gorilla. So the fella doing the commentary would be talking about this gorilla and where it came from and don't make a noise anybody because it upsets it. And then they'd let the gorilla out and he used to run out into the audience. I don't think you'd get away with it today. I think the health and safety would be an issue."
The exhibition offers a nostalgic journey for those who remember the attraction from their childhood, while also providing a stark look at the quiet inevitability of nature reclaiming the once-bustling Scarborough site.
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