Re: Talbot Street Tuesday (Picture Heavy)
With the arrival of the new Burger Kitchen outlets when the new season opens, we thought it would be a good time to look at some of the branded foodoulets that have graced the park over the years, and that Alton Towers have spent the past few seasons replacing with their own offerings.
Back in 1998, when the park first switched to branded outlets directional signs such of these could be found littered throughout the park. Here we see the themed MacDonald's markers pointing the way to the Cred Street Diner, The Generator in Forbidden Valley and Jester's Court in Merrie England.
Speaking of the Cred Street Diner, here we see it in it's former guise as Snack in the Box, during it's final season before becoming a MacDoanld's franchise.
Most recently this has been the Cloud Cuckoo Land Burger King, and is currently completing its transformation into the largest of the three Burger Kitchens.
The concept artwork for the Cred Street Diner is surprisingly close to the finished product.
The Diner is much missed, for it's highly themed interiors, which captured the essence of Cred Street, and seamlessly weaved the MacDoanld's brand into the park.
Few if any of the original directional signs still exist today, and here we see a generic version (potentially used in Festival Park) and the Gloomy Woods sign. Notice the bat details on the latter of the two.
At the same time MacDonald's arrived at the park so too did KFC and Pizza Hut, at the Katanga Cookhouse, here we see some well themed signage for the unti, which would have been found in Katanage Canyon itself and Merrie England.
An artists impression of what the inside of the Katanga Cookhouse looked like, looking towards the entrance. In the same picture today, the pizza counter of Explorers would take up the majority of the picture.
The other KFC/ Pizza Hut unit was the Meltdown in X Sector (today The Fried Chicken Co.
This signage would have been used in the front lawn area of the Towers, where the Goalstriker unit and Sales and Information are located.
Outside the park in the entrance plaza, signage was introduced to advertise the new offerings within the park.
This signage still exists to this day, and has recently been updated to reflect the new Burger Kitchens opening this season.
These days the home of Old El Paso in the park can be found at the Mexican Catina, however the company's links to the park are well estabilshed, and they used to sponsor Beastly Bites, a long since departed unit, which used to site in between the Thunder Looper and the Beast in Forbidden Valley.
The site of Beastly Bites is roughly the same location that Mutant Racers used to operate.
Finally this week, we come to Nemices. The long establihsed Doughnut shop in Forbbiden Valley.
The unit has changed surprisingly little over the park 15 years, but here we see the concept artwork for the shortlived time when this unit was sponsored by Dots of Fun.