Opened 1897 – Closed 1939
I wish I had a time machine. If I did, then this is one of the first places I would visit. The Victoria Pleasure Gardens in my home town of Burgess Hill are sadly gone, buried under a modern factory estate. How sad that Edwin Street's tribute to Queen Victoria ended up buried under concrete and factory buildings. Hopefully the photographs and leaflet reproduced here will give you a small flavour of the place. The switchback was one of the earliest in the world and people from all over Sussex visited the gardens and boating lake in the summer, and in winter, when the lake was frozen, it was opened for skating . . . provided the ice could take the weight of Mr Street!