Our story

With its rich heritage, its beautiful seaside location and its great value rides and attractions, Adventure Island is, without question, the go-to amusement park in Essex.

But did you know that our site has been delivering fun in some form or another for well over a century? Take a look at how our park has evolved over the years!

Timeline

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1918
Adventure Island started life as the Sunken Garden, a seaside haven for visitors to the Southend coast. The site was home to a few children’s rides back in the 1920s.
1976
The Miller family purchased the land out to the west and transformed the space into a fully-fledged amusement centre for the first time. The park was renamed Peter Pan’s Playground.
1995
The park underwent vast expansion after the land to the east of the site was bought to add even more square footage – and the decision was made to change its name again, this time to Adventure Island.
1999
This was the year we debuted Green Scream, which was considered our signature ride until Rage came along!
2000
We added The Barnstormer, our fast paced yet family friendly coaster, to our portfolio of rides.
2001
Vortex sprung to life, bringing incredible views and traditional Orbiter style spins into the mix.
2002
Our Executive Chairman, Philip Miller, was awarded an MBE for his charitable work and services to the community.
2003
We completed work on our third rollercoaster, Mighty Mini Mega, and opened its carts to the public for the first time.
2007
Visitors flocked to experience what has grown to become one of the most intense rides in the park: Rage. To date, Rage is still one of the largest investments we’ve made, coming in at a cool £3million! We even needed to relocate Skydrop, Vortex and our Raging River Log Flume to make way for our new crowd-pleaser.
2011
We launched Kiddi Koasta, our child-friendly coaster. This was also the year a bunch of crows decided to build their nest at the top of Rage’s loop gathering, which got us lots of attention in the press!
2014
We said goodbye to the Pirate Boat, one of the park’s oldest attractions, to make way for Adventure Inside.
2015
Adventure Inside, our now-famous soft play area, opened its doors to the public. We also removed the Devils Creek Gold Mine, which was replaced with Adventureville.
2016
Adventure Island retained its top five status in the Friendliest Park in the World category at the annual Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards.
2019
After spending a whopping £1m during the design and installation stages, we finally launched Axis, a 360 degree pendulum ride that swings and spins daring guests over 100 foot in the air.
2020
The coronavirus outbreak presented our team with new challenges – but we still enjoyed a busy high season! We updated our policies to reflect current events, and we revised our health and safety procedures to ensure our park was completely COVID safe for all our visitors. Pandemic aside, we were delighted to win the Queen’s Award for promoting opportunity for young people.
2021
Adventure Island introduced it's new thrill seeking ride Screature!
2022
To commemorate Southend receiving city status, we had a royal visit from His Majesty King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla who enjoyed an afternoon tea at Sands by the Sea! This was also the year we welcomed the City Wheel which overlooks Southend as well as the Thames!