It was billed as "the place to spend a happy day" off the Thames with a purpose-built pier and enough boats to ferry thousands of tourists from London to Kent.

No, we're not talking about the multi-billion pound London Resort proposals but a popular day trip destination regarded as the “EuroDisney of the Victorian age”.

The Rosherville Gardens in Crete Hall Road, Northfleet, first opened in 1837 inside a disused chalk pit by the river.

It boasted a tea room, large landscaped Italian gardens, a maze, lake, lookout tower, statues, archery ground and even a "hermit cave" and a bear pit.

The original incarnation sat next to a series of villas and terraces developed by Jeremiah Rosher, an entrepreneurial chalk merchant who lent his name to the growing new town.

But it was George Jones, a businessman from the capital, who formed the Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Company and put the gardens well and truly on the map.

His vision saw the site transformed into a major tourist attraction with a zoo and fun fair that became one of London's popular playgrounds.

It was originally intended to appeal to wealthy, more cultured visitors, but after failing to attract enough numbers Mr Jones dropped his prices and spruced up the entertainment billing.

From 1842 onwards, the grounds were renamed "Rosherville Gardens" and sold to day-trippers from the capital as "the place to spend a happy day".

Fairground-style entertainment drew in huge crowds with pyrotechnic displays, balloon rides and extravagant performances by tight-rope walking acrobats.

The pleasure gardens covered an impressive 17 acres and was almost twice the size of its nearest equivalent in London where space already came at a premium.

Tourists looking to unwind from city life flocked to Gravesend via paddle steamers, landing at Rosherville Pier and entering the gardens via steps etched out from the cliff face.

During its heyday, a bank holiday would see as many as 30,000 guests descend on the site and it was lauded an enormous success.

But it soon oversaw a reversal in fortunes, starting with the death of Mr Jones in 1872.

Local heritage enthusiast Conrad Broadley dubbed the landmark attraction the "EuroDisney of the Victorian age" and believes its surviving features should be restored and enjoyed by the public.

"Rosherville Gardens was set up by the Kent Zoological and Botanical Gardens Institute in the early Victorian era," he said.

"And at the same time you had the London Zoological Society setting up London Zoo and various others up and down the country.

"Economics changed the idea of Rosherville Gardens and it went from more of a zoo to a pleasure garden but it still lasted for the best part of 100 years."

The pleasure gardens would eventually be passed into the hands of the Rosherville Gardens Company Ltd, who paid different managers to administer the site.

Then six years later tragedy struck near Woolwich Pier.

Whilst returning from a "Moonlight Trip" trip to Rosherville, the Princess Alice passenger paddle-steamer was run down in the Thames by cargo ship Bywell Castle.

Around 650 mostly working class Londoners were killed and harrowing reports of boatmen hooking out bodies from the foul-smelling waters dominated headlines.

As recounted in a blog compiled by the Royal Museums Greenwich, one survivor, Mr Huddart, later said: "I noticed something very peculiar in the water.

"Both the taste and smell were something dreadful, something that I could not describe – having been down to the bottom and having rose again with my mouth full of it I could give a very good picture of it – it was the most horrid water I ever tasted and the smell was also equally bad."

The sinking of the Princess Alice remains to date Britain's most deadliest inland waterway accident and sparked radical changes to shipping, navigation and the sewage system.

In a damning critique, famous 19th century travel writer Henry James, who visited Gravesend in the wake of the tragedy, described it as a "vulgar little place".

"The British populace, returning from what the advertisements call a “happy day” at Rosherville, struck me, on the steamer, rather less favorably than an adoptive cockney could have wished," he said.

"I had nothing to do for a couple of hours but to sit upon the paddle-box and watch it; but there was no great charm in the spectacle."

The tragic events had cast a shadow over the gardens which by this time had also been impacted by other emerging social trends.

The advent of the railway had made alternative trips to seaside towns on the Kent coast such as Margate more affordable.

By the turn of the century Rosherville Gardens had gone bankrupt and despite attempts to salvage the resort it was closed for good in 1914 at the outset of the First World War.

Seven years later, five acres of land were sold to telegraph cable company WT Henley.

It later turfed over the gardens and sealed off the clifftop entrance upon its full acquisition of the site in 1939.

The cable crews constructed huge twisting passages on site which were used as an air raid shelter to shield from German bombing during the Second World War.

Despite this, various parts of the pleasure garden still remain intact including the cliff top entrance and the hermit cave.

But perhaps the most prominent and oft-discussed is the rare Grade II listed Bear Pit.

Photographs exist showing Rosie the bear in the circular pit with iron railings keeping her away from visitors.

It was excavated in late 2012 but covered over again to preserve it by the site’s new owners, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), now Homes England.

In 2016 a campaign was started to unearth the iconic brick-built structure which is thought to be a “very rare surviving example" and the only one of its kind in the country.

Today, the site is situated in the Cable Wharf development where nearly 600 new homes are planned on the riverside as part of the Ebbsfleet Garden City project.

Developers Keepmoat Homes confirmed at the time it would commemorate the bear pit in line with guidance from local authorities.

Earlier this year it received planning approval from Kent County Council for public artwork, named "Born to be Wild" to be installed above the buried remains.

Keepmoat said the sculpture would invite the public to sit and consider the "future relationship between animals and humans".

Speaking earlier this year, Mick O’Farrell, regional managing director at Keepmoat Homes, said: “We have listened to and continue to work with the public, local stakeholders and authorities to ensure the heritage at Cable Wharf is preserved.

“The culture surrounding the development is a key focus for us and we’re thrilled to have received planning permission for the public artwork to be installed to commemorate the historic bear pit within the Italian garden."

But Northfleet conservationist Conrad Broadley, who is part of the Friends of Rosherville Gardens group, claims the artwork pays lip service to the area's heritage.

He believes the pit is nationally significant and should be re-exposed.

"I don't think they understand. It is not like a usual campaign where they knock the building down and it's gone, it's still there and we want to restore it," Mr Broadley said.

"I've had emails from Australia, New Zealand, Texas, Japan about the gardens the history... and how great it would be to put it back."

But the heritage enthusiast is keen to point out the aim of the campaign is not to rebuild or replant Rosherville.

He points to the successful restoration of a bear pit in Sheffield botanical gardens and the heritage trail at Ingress park in Greenhithe as blueprints.

Mr Broadley added: "The fact we have still got four of the structures there should be celebrated and they should be restored."

"The campaign continues. It doesn't end now, put it that way."