Families share some favourite photos which feature Southsea dinosaur Luna Park 10 years ago
If you grew up around Portsmouth in 2010 what an extraordinary experience it must have been to go to Southsea Common and find a ‘life-size’ Ultrasaurus had come to visit for the summer holidays!
It’s rare to meet someone that was not fascinated by dinosaurs at least at some point in their childhood. It was kids, and their parents and grandparents, desperate to entertain them through the long vacation, that were Luna Park’s biggest fans.
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdAt 16m tall, kids and families had fun playing with the dinosaur. Joanne Mitchell’s photograph shows Daniel peeking out from behind the war memorial with Luna Park looking majestic. ‘You can tell how big it was from the size of the people and the Spinnaker Tower is in the background’.
Martin Giddey also successfully captured the scale of the artwork with his tiny grandson sitting on the tail while visiting the ‘much-loved dinosaur’.
Lynne Hiscott’s image shows a classic group portrait with a difference, ‘After walking around the dinosaur we sat on the beach. I looked round, noticed that Ultrasaurus seemed to be looming over them and thought that it would make a great picture.’ It did! A classic ‘who invited him?!!!’
As part of Luna Park 10 Years - Celebrating the Southsea Dinosaur we are collecting people’s photographs and memories of that time to create a public archive. Do you have memories or photographs of you, your child or grandchild with Luna Park?
Advertisement
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide AdYou can share your pictures by sending them directly to [email protected] and you might just get to see them reproduced in this column in the coming weeks! We are also taking a selection of images to include in Heather & Ivan Morison’s digital work Luna Park 10 Years.
Visit lunapark.land to see the virtual reality version of the Ultrasaurus back on Southsea Common, and from the website you can access the chat bot to share your thoughts about the past and future. Or why don’t you call Luna to share your story? We have a dedicated phone line where you can leave a message. Just call 07488 266872 and Luna will answer!
Your images and memories will form a key part of the new work we are developing for next year. Please visit our Crowdfunder page crowdfunder.co.uk/southsea-dinosaur to help us commission a lasting tribute to our long gone and much missed visitor.
Next week I’ll be looking at how people got creative with the dinosaur with beautiful, strange and fun results.
A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron
Thank you for reading this story. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on our advertisers and thus our revenues.
The News is more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription to support our journalism. You can subscribe here for unlimited access to Portsmouth news and information online.
Every subscription helps us continue providing trusted, local journalism and campaign on your behalf for our city.
Comment Guidelines
National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.