Winter Wonderland will be "celebrating ten years of sparkling magic" when the gates open on 18 November, according to its website. It is certainly a fascinating place. Occupying a sizeable chunk of the park, it is jam-packed with rides and stalls - a magnet for small children and their indulgent parents. Sadly, the weather doesn't always play its part. In recent years it has been rather less than frosty and the Wonderland's collection of polar bears and penguins look rather sad in the grey light of a rainy London day. 

At times like these there's a certain  bathos to the place. The architecture and the trappings scream fun, but the faces of some of the patrons - particularly those whose children have gone into meltdown - tell a rather different story. 

It would be wrong to mock, of course. The vast majority of visitors love the place and it does have a kind of plastic magic. It is certainly a fascinating place to photograph and I will, no doubt, be celebrating the 'sparkling magic' once again this year.