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2025: General Discussion

The concern to me would be: is there enough general disposable income for guests to stay in numbers to make it profitable.
And with Towers being so outta the way your not likely to get people travel to eat exclusively after park hours
 
MrTowers said:
I do understand the crowds dynamics but I'm not talking about another burger kitchen or hot dog stand. If you had some of your big brand restaurant chains here (nandos, wagamama, five guys etc...) I'm sure the pull would be great enough to convince visitors to make the trip back to the start considering what other food options are available around the park.
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I'm not sure that the "pull" of going to any generic food outlet, which you could find on most high streets or in most shopping malls, is enough to convince people to sacrifice about two hours out of their (already limited) day.

You have to factor in the travel to Towers Street and then away, about half an hour at a leisurely pace without a buggy, or a wheelchair, or goslings who want to stop every 5 paces, in either direction. Then you have an hour in the establishment itself. It's a large sacrifice. There are far better strategic places to have restaurants in the park.
 
Benzin said:
Building a new restaurant from scratch and not even putting toilets in them so you have to walk out the building even in 2007 was peak stupidity.
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The toilets are literally at the back of the building though. I can see why they didn’t add any when there is existing toilets right next door.

Unlike Katanga Canyon pizza buffet where the nearest toilet was a long walk to Gloomy Wood so made sense to add toilets when that converted from KFC/Pizza Hut to the buffet. They just didn’t add enough capacity.
 
I don’t think a brand would make much difference, there is only really CBeebies to Mutiny Bay that requires crossing top of the street, x-sector and spinball it’s still quicker to go across white bridge.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
I'm not sure that the "pull" of going to any generic food outlet, which you could find on most high streets or in most shopping malls, is enough to convince people to sacrifice about two hours out of their (already limited) day.

You have to factor in the travel to Towers Street and then away, about half an hour at a leisurely pace without a buggy, or a wheelchair, or goslings who want to stop every 5 paces, in either direction. Then you have an hour in the establishment itself. It's a large sacrifice. There are far better strategic places to have restaurants in the park.
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I would argue that there is significantly more footfall in this area of the park compared to where the burger kitchen is. If I remember correctly McDonald's used to be heaving in this part of the park so a brand does make a difference. Obviously back then Charlie and the chocolate factory ride being next door compared to a Dungeon / empty attractions probably made a difference. Plus UG land and cloud cuckoo land were probably better than what's replaced them.

I do agree that there are probably better places to have them footfall wise, but then I would imagine there is a difference between visitors that want a more relaxing day, and those that will eat a burger and fries in a queue line to get on the most rides possible.
 
As others have said, I think the nature of Alton Towers as a park is such that people won’t really want to traipse back to Towers Street for lunch.

Alton is a big park, and if you make people traipse back to Towers Street from, say, Forbidden Valley or Dark Forest for a specific brand to have for lunch, I can’t imagine that would go down too well. Unlike Disney, Alton isn’t explicitly hub and spoke in layout, so people aren’t organically flowing through Towers Street throughout the day.
 
It’s a bit chicken and egg - people don’t go to Towers Street other than entrance and exit because there’s nothing there of note other than a gift shop and guest services, if there was more there then would guest behaviour change, possibly but who knows.

If not restaurants what, if anything, would people do to improve Towers Street?
 
Mick said:
It’s a bit chicken and egg - people don’t go to Towers Street other than entrance and exit because there’s nothing there of note other than a gift shop and guest services, if there was more there then would guest behaviour change, possibly but who knows.

If not restaurants what, if anything, would people do to improve Towers Street?
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I think you are right. There is no one there because other than guest services there is nothing else there (I'm sure lately guest services gets quite a lot of footfall based on lasts years operations)

Like others have said alton is a huge park but without something worth travelling to a specific area you do get dead spots. You could argue the likes of nemesis are your anchor store in a shopping centre they bring guests to that area. Towers street has nothing, but one thing you always get is guests drifting towards food venues in shopping centres regardless of where they are so the same logic could apply here.
 
I don't think a chain like Nando's would work there, I think visitors would be more likely to go to one of those on the way home.

I personally think a higher end restaurant could work at Towers Street - something to make your way there for, that you can't get anywhere else on the park and justifies leaving the rides for a bit.

Whether enough guests these days have the money for that or the desire is a different question though, as well as the issue of keeping it open in the evening when it's so far from the main resort - not so big of an issue if the monorail was kept running but still not ideal.

I think it would have to be part of a wider move to make Towers an actual resort destination for a multiple day visit so that most guests aren't just focused on getting on the main rides, which is what the place very much seems to be all about these days.
 
Mick said:
It’s a bit chicken and egg - people don’t go to Towers Street other than entrance and exit because there’s nothing there of note other than a gift shop and guest services, if there was more there then would guest behaviour change, possibly but who knows.

If not restaurants what, if anything, would people do to improve Towers Street?
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You would need attractions nearby, not sure how you would achieve that but people won’t just head back that way for food.

Hence why I would put corporate hospitality on the street and put a restaurant where the hospitality tent is. I would have a more varied quick serve on the street doing breakfast baps in the morning and other quick service options at the end of the day.
 
Mick said:
It’s a bit chicken and egg - people don’t go to Towers Street other than entrance and exit because there’s nothing there of note other than a gift shop and guest services, if there was more there then would guest behaviour change, possibly but who knows.

If not restaurants what, if anything, would people do to improve Towers Street?
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Lighting and projection mapped for an evening show.

night_tstreet03.jpg


Get the festoons back

“Beautify” the entrance with a backlit 3D logo and add in some fountains.

Add in permanent, themed security buildings in the plaza or extend the roof of the turnstiles area and include there.

Actually theme in the inside of tower street trading with “spaces” themed to the merch they’re selling so it doesn’t look like a Woolworths.

Reopen towers street family restaurant into an actual buffet eatery.

Use towers street “suite” as high end dining location.

Move corner coffee to larger space between guest services and box office.

Turn corner coffee into VIP experiences lounge.

On a more expensive level, drop the entirety of the entrance plaza and build a 4 sided hotel with a central courtyard and built in entrance. Use the disabled or VIP parking for the hotel.
 
Chicken and egg.
That's what I go up Towers Street for, and then down again, in the middle of the day, for the posh picnic, left in the car at express parking, because the food offering is so poor overall.
And it isn't a problem to access the area...IF the skyride is running.

And food isn't a problem at Thorpe.
 
Ash said:
Lighting and projection mapped for an evening show.

night_tstreet03.jpg


Get the festoons back

“Beautify” the entrance with a backlit 3D logo and add in some fountains.

Add in permanent, themed security buildings in the plaza or extend the roof of the turnstiles area and include there.

Actually theme in the inside of tower street trading with “spaces” themed to the merch they’re selling so it doesn’t look like a Woolworths.

Reopen towers street family restaurant into an actual buffet eatery.

Use towers street “suite” as high end dining location.

Move corner coffee to larger space between guest services and box office.

Turn corner coffee into VIP experiences lounge.

On a more expensive level, drop the entirety of the entrance plaza and build a 4 sided hotel with a central courtyard and built in entrance. Use the disabled or VIP parking for the hotel.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this to make the street more interesting at the beginning and end of the day, but you can put any luxury food outlet you like and people will still not drag themselves down there at the middle of the day.

It’s an example of the ideal getting in the way of the logical. A luxury eatery would be brilliant at Towers but it needs a better location with passing footfall otherwise it will fail and Merlin will argue there was no market for it rather than it was just badly located.
 
rob666 said:
Back in the years when the whole street was used with a heady mix of different shops and food outlets...
it really was very quiet indeed for most of the day.
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There was more down that end of the park in those days, and either no thunder valley or in the later years not much in thunder valley so your longest practical walk was from Festival park. The dynamics of the park flow have changed.
 
Towers street is more of a place to eat either when arriving or when leaving. I recall when it was the Talbot restaurant and they did different food to what was on park, eg steak and chips and restaurant food as opposed to fast food.

However when there was the large McDonald’s (next to dungeons) that always drew people in as the cable car was right next to it and the restaurant was accessible from anywhere in the park.
 
I think the major reasons why the Walliams Street Burger Kitchen is quite now is because there are not enough attractions at that end of the park, Dungeons was an upcharge and now closed, 4D theatre is closed. People will make the slight effort to go to Woodcutters for a pint and plated food rather than fast food and it is well located. What’s now Burger Kitchen was busier when Toyland Tours was operating.
 
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