I'm sorry, but to a child this is horribly misleading. Funland? I saw that big lit up sign as a naive seven year old and went running up to it as fast as my little legs would carry me. There was a FUNland on the edge of PLEASUREland?!? I thought my heart would explode with the joy! What wonders could this amazing indoor Funland offer in addition to the vomit-inducing thrill rides and demonic-looking wooden horses of Pleasureland? What dreams were hiding behind that door?
If my seven year old self knew how to swear, I'd have been effing and blinding with disappointment. Behind the garish neon glare of Funland's veneer were coughing old men, indulging in the promises of '80p tea and coffee', gambling their pensions away on fancy fruit machines. Okay, so there are a few family-friendly treats here, but mainly in the form of those mechanical animal rides they always take the mick out of on my favourite American cartoons. I'm thinking of that episode of The Simpsons where Bart's birthday party is held at Wall-E-Weasel's, slogan to which is 'we cram fun down your throat'.
It's got a quaintly cheap café which sells the aforementioned inexpensive hot beverages as well as traditional meals and sandwiches, but you come here for a fill-up rather that cordon bleu. If you like arcade games it might just be the place for you, but I can't look past that youthful disappointment I once experienced. Oh well. I guess fun is a very subjective word. read more