What is a Kursaal?
The word Kursaal comes from the German language and means a room or public hall used by visitors at health resorts in Germany.
It later became to mean an amusement park at a seaside or other type of resort.

The opening of the Kursaal amusement park must have been a very exciting day in the lives of the people living in Southend, Essex in 1901.
Set in about 27 acres, at the time it was the probably the largest theme park in the world.
For the next 60 odd years it was to prove one of the major attractions for Essex, London, and beyond.
With its close proximity to London the Kursaal attracted not only day trippers but people taking their annual holidays.
The heydays of the Southend Kursaal occurred before the advent of cheap package holidays abroad - these were to prove the death knell for the famous dome.