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Alton Towers Ruins - Behind a Paywall

I did the tour yesterday and really enjoyed it! I found the guide Stephen very informative- a lot of it I knew already but he had some interesting anecdotes. I also loved the transitions between different places in the gardens and how he intrigued us to go on!

Stayed and chatted with the guide and team afterwards talking all things history. He was saying he hopes it expands and they’ve have a really positive response - it’s sold out for this year and they’re hoping to expand it next season. Apparently the reason against self guided is English Heritage have put their foot down and said they don’t think it should be open free flow because of the previous vandalism that has taken place. There’s also spaces that are not safe- we got taken into a side room in the towers and were told not to go past a black door and the room wasn’t safe for GP use (he said we were the first tour to go in this side room as we ascended up to the roof).
He praised us for being the trailblazers and he was hopefully more restoration work will be taking place on the towers- I think this is a step forward on the right direction.
I spoke with him about about the books he’d read and research he’d done for the tour- he was extremely well read and knew a lot about local history and how it links with the towers. We got chatting about the churnet valley railway and Pugin’s gem.
 
Took my parents to Towers on the £19 share the fun vouchers specifically to do the garden and house tour. Mum first visited Towers in 1963 (ish) when all there was were the gardens, so she was keen to see how things had changed. Dad used to be a coaster fan, (and we used to go every couple of years or so as kids) but developed vertigo a few years back so can no longer do rides. We worked out this was their first return to towers for about 30 years, maybe more. I will be doing a proper feedback email to Towers, but though people might be interested here too,

Our guides were Jake and Jayne, and the weather was nice for wandering about. The guides were very friendly, but relied a lot on crib notes rather than knowing the tour well, and it was very much a “stop here while I read you this fact. I have read you the fact, we will now move on to the next place where I will read you another fact” Jake did say he was recently promoted to being a tour guide so hopefully he’ll improve the move tours he leads. He didn’t tend to speak while we were walking, which my mum thought was a bit of a shame, she and dad do a lot of tours and said they’re better when the guide is able to improv between the proper stops - again, something that will hopefully come with more experience. Low point of the tour was walking across the bridge over the canal - horribly over grown which is a shame when it’s a specific point on an “iconic” tour. As gardening fans, my parents felt Towers could be doing a lot more with the gardens - especially along the tour route.

We got to go inside one of the conservatories, a “tour exclusive” apparently, followed by a fairly circular walk around the gardens, taking in the pagoda fountain and a few other bits before heading up to the house. Although mum and dad are quite fit, they felt a 5 minutes breather might have been nice at this point - a few others on the tour were also quite out of breath too.

The house tour was quite brief, a few facts, a lot of “sorry I don’t know” when asked a question, and a bit too long spent on the roof (in our view). The finale in the chapel was good - goes to show what can be done restoration wise where’s there’s a will and finding.

The rest of the day we spent wandering about, lunch in the RCR, and watching the coasters (which wasn’t as terrible as it sounds, dad is an engineer and had lots of questions and interest in how the things work “these days” even if he can’t ride them any more).

The cost of £29 each (£10 house, £19 share the fun) made it comparable to the kinds of places they visit a lot, and they’ve said they’d go again next year to see how the garden has progressed.

Whilst we were there someone not on the tour had moved barriers in able to take photos and we saw the damage on the walls from people carving their names so I can see why access is being so limited. Seems some people can’t be trusted, and if £10 means the place is better protected than I think personally that’s not too high a price to pay.
 
The boasts about "tour exclusive" rooms seem a bit hollow. I'm fairly sure all the tours have included access to the conservatory, and mine certainly included access to rooms on the way up to the roof. Why lie!
 
Alastair said:
The boasts about "tour exclusive" rooms seem a bit hollow. I'm fairly sure all the tours have included access to the conservatory, and mine certainly included access to rooms on the way up to the roof. Why lie!
Click to expand...
I took that to mean you can only go in the conservatory if you're on a guided tour of the gardens, as opposed to being able to wander the gardens freely. Not that it was exclusive to any specific tour.
 
This is a "new" exclusive, the conservatories were unlocked for a number of years, I have used them in the past for rain shelters.
I can only guess they have been locked since the renovation?
 
rob666 said:
This is a "new" exclusive, the conservatories were unlocked for a number of years, I have used them in the past for rain shelters.
I can only guess they have been locked since the renovation?
Click to expand...

Shocking news.
You mean to say AT now want guests to get wet?
Does this mean the Flume will be rebuilt? And the Rapids will build more waterfalls.

Gonna have a thoosie dream over this one. Ring Shawn now.
 
rob666 said:
This is a "new" exclusive, the conservatories were unlocked for a number of years, I have used them in the past for rain shelters.
I can only guess they have been locked since the renovation?
Click to expand...

Not even that I don’t think Rob. We’ve freely wandered into the conservatories post-renovation.

It almost feels like they’ve restricted access to be able to provide it as a paid service. Or perhaps that’s too cynical. They’d surely never charge to access a part of the park that was previously free…
 
One I have meant to ask a number of times...come on Mr Zola.
In front of the conservatories, there are a large number of small holes in the paving stones.
Looks like one of those surprise mini fountains used to amuse the punters by suddenly spurting water.
Seen it on a stone bench at a stately place somewhere as a kid.
Anyone know what they were actually for?
 
No, they were the best feature in the bottom pond and lower gardens, then they fenced that part of the gardens off to all.
To save money on fencing...I was told at the time.
 
rob666 said:
One I have meant to ask a number of times...come on Mr Zola.
In front of the conservatories, there are a large number of small holes in the paving stones.
Looks like one of those surprise mini fountains used to amuse the punters by suddenly spurting water.
Seen it on a stone bench at a stately place somewhere as a kid.
Anyone know what they were actually for?
Click to expand...
Not sure exactly what part you're referring to, but assuming the stone path running along the front? Could be for where they've drilled holes to attach benches or pedestals (for putting statues/urns etc on). They also used to have a platform for a bandstand so they may have been required to drill some holes to attach that too. Never heard anything about surprise squirters! :)

P.S - Even a couple of years before the conservatories were renovated they'd started locking the doors. Yes, they were occasionally open during that time and they've occasionally been open after the renovation but generally they were locked most of the time and generally still are. It's more of an accident when they've been left unlocked I would assume. Obviously going back a fair few years they were left unlocked to be explored as a matter of course.
 
rob666 said:
This is a "new" exclusive, the conservatories were unlocked for a number of years, I have used them in the past for rain shelters.
I can only guess they have been locked since the renovation?
Click to expand...
Didn't they house a flower shop a few years back? I remember going in there.
 
We have a few shots of The Garden Centre on TowersStreet.

The Conservatories are unfortunately another example of paywalling something that used to be free.

You can understand why they were closed before the renovation due to safety concerns with loose glass overhead. But since they have become another example of something Merlin have renovated and then locked away from guests - see also the Banqueting Hall window, the Oratory, the Birdcage and the Music Room windows to name a few.

This is somewhat what I mean when I say that over the years they seem to have tried precisely nothing to try and make their heritage work for them. It's not that they haven't invested money, they've just invested money and then done nothing to capitalise on that investment.

The tours are dabbling in the possibilities, but on their own they will quickly throttle the heritage rather than support it.
 
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