We used to visit a huge shopping centre nearish where I grew up, it’s called the Metro Centre in Gateshead, and it’s still there albeit a shell of its former self.

The best thing about the Metro Centre was the indoor amusement park, Metroland. You’d go in the main entrace and past a couple shops, up an escalator into just the most compact, garish, deafening place with a big wave swinger ride right in front of you and a rollercoaster speeding by over your head in a manner that would definitely not pass health and safety checks these days. You can see some pics here.

It was the BEST.

Every single time we went I’d measure myself on the “you must be this tall” sign for that rollercoaster, and I’ll never ever forget the day I finally got on. My mam was super excited too because she’s always loved rollercoasters herself. The start of the ride was sort of behind everything else in a dark crevice by the external wall of the building, and then you got to the top of the lift and went round a corner and got the full view of all of Metroland before dropping down almost onto the heads of the innocent bystanders. It wound its way around and above and through various other rides until finally it disappeared back behind the scenes and to the station.

The whole thing was incredibly epic as a kid and honestly continued to be into my teen years too.

Metroland is sadly long gone, but I was thrilled to find out the coaster actually survived and is now known as Rampage at a park called The Big Sheep. Turns out the coaster was always tiny and kind of underwhelming, once you see it outside. But in that dark, noisy, cramped indoor park it was the highlight of my childhood.