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White Cliffs Experience ( War Street ) was in the Fuhrer`s era...on his watch...it was closed in 1999
....the year I was Leader of the Council....It had been a flop from day one and had been sucking
money out of DDC`s budget for years......
Quote....
The White Cliffs Experience was a visitor attraction in Dover, attached to Dover Museum. It opened
in 1991 and, though it underwent a refit halfway through its life, it still did not prove a success and
was later closed.[3] It included a Blitz Experience (an audio-visual street scene of World War II). Its
building is now occupie d by the town's library and Discovery Centre.
Only a small portion of the actual archaeology was on display, the attraction instead being reliant
on dioramas and audio-visual displays. Even after one redesign, it did not prove a success and has
now been closed and its building converted into the Dover Library and Discovery Centre.
That portion of the archaeology can still be viewed, but only by request from
the library staff. Many of the dioramas and reconstruction figures have been reused in Dover Museum.
The White Cliffs Experience was closed in 1999 for a combination of reasons; the Labour opposition
group on Dover District Council had always been against the WCE, labelling it 'The White Elephant
' and opposing the amount of money it took to run as well as complaining that it fell short of achieving
the predicted 300,000 visitors a year.
When they came to power in 1997, the new Labour council were obviously not too keen on the WCE.
Their policies for regenerating Dover relied on attracting industry and acting as an 'enabler' rather
than a provider of heritage and tourism facilities.
They withdrew much of the money previously paid to tourism initiatives. At the same time, the technology
used to run the animatronics and shows (laser discs, carousel slide projectors and 35mm film
projectors, etc.) had quickly dated
and become obsolete and by 1998 needed replacing. Various quotes were received to update the WCE
but were beyond what the Council were prepared to pay so they decided to cut their losses and close
the Experience
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