Talbot Street Tuesday

[Trooper Looper]

Never knew Towers celebrated The Jubilee. How British of Them!!

Isn't Henry Hound supposed to return this year in the park?

 

[Jb85]

Never knew Towers celebrated The Jubilee. How British of Them!!

Isn't Henry Hound supposed to return this year in the park?

I hope he does !!

 

[Squiggs]

Isn't Henry Hound supposed to return this year in the park?

Not that I know of.

 

[jon81uk]

Never knew Towers celebrated The Jubilee. How British of Them!!

Isn't Henry Hound supposed to return this year in the park?

It was the parks jubilee being celebrated, 1928-1988 was seen as sixty years of the estate being open to the public.

I mentioned Henry Hound and that I think he should return and someone mis-read it and thought he was returning.

 

[Squiggs]

One of the scarier things about Nemesis Sub-Terra is that it is now over ten years since it first opened!

For today's Talbot Street Tuesday we're taking a look back at the troubled attraction, which really split guest opinion when it was still operating.

Were you a fan of this Nemesis spin-off, or was it 'your greatest nightmare: underground'?

 

[Trooper Looper]

One of the scarier things about Nemesis Sub-Terra is that it is now over ten years since it first opened!

For today's Talbot Street Tuesday we're taking a look back at the troubled attraction, which really split guest opinion when it was still operating.

Were you a fan of this Nemesis spin-off, or was it 'your greatest nightmare: underground'?

Ah, Alton Towers Marmite...

 

[JAperson]

I think it opened on.my second visit to towers, I didn’t ride it, I was too young but my mum did consider it. I remember us discussing what it might be, I remember thinking it was an underground version of nemesis (I wasn’t very old, would’ve been 8).

 

[jon81uk]

I liked the concept, I didn't like the shouty people pretending to be military.

 

[Mi-Nigle]

I enjoyed what was there. The themeing inside was by no means ground breaking but it set the scene well enough and when all the sfx were working it was good. I especially liked the way the panels inside the escape lift would bend inwards as if being caught from he outside, something I reckon 80% probably missed in the manufactured panic of escaping. It was one of the more unreliable effects in my experience though. Soooo much more could have been done with the exterior though. It could easily have been mistaken for yet another shipping container gift shop. Given that they were most likely on a tight budget, I'm glad they mainly focused on interior details.

The whole affair always felt incomplete though, even after they added the Sub-Terra scare maze DLC to the end. Maybe the ride sequence should have been longer? Or a longer/more elaborate pre-show?

Loved the concept, the attempt to please fans during the marketing, the ambitious actor-heavy backpedalling (seriously how did they think that was going to be sustainable in any way?)... it just never hit the mark though and you often heard the emerging guests ask, "Is that it?". I often felt that way myself.

I personally didn't mind the shouty ride hosts but can completely understand why anyone would not like that.

Such an odd attraction.

 

[djtruefitt]

I actually really liked Sub Terra In its later version (with actors and not when they got cut). When it opened it was awful but I do think after all the changes it was a decent attraction. And you could see people with genuine terror as the countdown was going off and all the lights were flashing to get in to the second lift.

 

[WickerwomanH]

I rode it I believe the year it opened or at least not long after, and being quite young at the time I hated it! But only because at that age I found it very scary. I think if it returned now, or something similar, I'd really enjoy it. It was quite a unique experience, or at least to me, and its good to have something actor led outside of Scarefest and halloween events. I think things like Sub-terra would really pad out Towers' lineup if done well, which we all know is something that is needed

 

[Squiggs]

Now, you may not know this, but here at TowersStreet we enjoy a beverage or two when on park.

These days we can often be found at the Welcom-Inn, but if we'd been visiting the park back in the 50s, perhaps we might have ventured next door into one of the park's earliest drinking establishments.

So for today's Talbot Street Tuesday, let's grab a pint in the Country Bar, which opened with the park after the war, likely in what had once been Alton Towers' old blacksmith's shop.

 

[NuttySquirrel]

Now, you may not know this, but here at TowersStreet we enjoy a beverage or two when on park.

These days we can often be found at the Welcom-Inn, but if we'd been visiting the park back in the 50s, perhaps we might have ventured next door into one of the park's earliest drinking establishments.

So for today's Talbot Street Tuesday, let's grab a pint in the Country Bar, which opened with the park after the war, likely in what had once been Alton Towers' old blacksmith's shop.

Looks like the sort of place that would have a wizened old bar man compulsively wiping out a pint glass with a filthy old cloth

 

[djtruefitt]

Probably still had a better drinks selection than the Welcominn has now

 

[AT86]

Now, you may not know this, but here at TowersStreet we enjoy a beverage or two when on park.

These days we can often be found at the Welcom-Inn, but if we'd been visiting the park back in the 50s, perhaps we might have ventured next door into one of the park's earliest drinking establishments.

So for today's Talbot Street Tuesday, let's grab a pint in the Country Bar, which opened with the park after the war, likely in what had once been Alton Towers' old blacksmith's shop.

Just spotted this photo from the 60s from altontowersarchive on Instagram. @Squiggs is this the building behind the courtyard that contained the bar?

 

[s_g_k]

Just when you think you know everything about the park, nuggets like this pop up! The more I look at pictures of the estate before it was developed in the 80s, the more I feel what an achievement it was.

 

[Matt N]

All this also makes me glad that the redevelopment happened at just the right time, because looking at those pictures suggests that a development of the nature of what happened at Alton Towers definitely wouldn’t have been allowed today or even a few years later on!

 

[Squiggs]

Just spotted this photo from the 60s from altontowersarchive on Instagram. @Squiggs is this the building behind the courtyard that contained the bar?

That's the one. You'll gather by the way that it is referenced in the article, I'm not 100% sure that it definitely was the bar, but there are several park maps that suggest it was in that building. Admittedly the bar could have been in another part of the courtyard (i.e. not when the Welcom-Inn is now) along that back range, but I've none of the existing windows seem to match up the layout of the interior photo.

Many years ago, a few of us were allowed to have a look around the Alton Towers archive and capture some of their images to share with the community. I would say that image is one of my favourites from the day, because it seems to perfectly encapsulate the park as it started its metamorphosis.

There are features that are so familiar and yet so foreign at the same time. You can see that by this time the interior of the courtyard had already been painted white, which remained right through to the 90s and almost certainly the Ingestre Cafeteria was operating out of what is now the Welcom-Inn.

The park's railway runs right into the heart of what is now Mutiny Bay and you can see it's original long brown maintenance (and one-time storage) building, sitting where Marauders Mayhem is today, if you follow the track in between the buildings (the space now taken up by the toilets and Freestyle shop) you can also see the original footbridge over the railway which crossed onto the site that would later become home to the Log Flume (the field in the upper-right)

Above the railway you have the old Blacksmith Shop, on the end of which you can see a later flat-roofed addition - this add-on would later be demolished and eventually was replaced by the unit that it now Mutiny Bay Donuts (which looks like it should be in the end of the Blacksmith building, but if you look, is actually in its own extension).

And then in the top-left you can see, what was then the 'latest addition', the old Cable Car station, in what looks like an extremely modern building compared to its surroundings. The freshly-planted conifer trees around the station are of particular interest, as today they are still a recognisable landmark in the park, forming the edge of Mutiny Bay - you can see them behind the games units next to Heave Ho. That white car is parked more or less in the very corner of what is now Mutiny Bay. These days, the line of buildings including the arcade actually follow the line of the older building you can see on the Blacksmith yard, with Pirates Quest directly in front of the older tree you can see above the Cable Car station. The trees can all be seen in this photo of Mutiny Bay:

And of course, let's not overlook the car park to the left of the photo, with cars parked where the Skyride station is today.

 

[rob666]

Sad old git reporting.
They were still using that car park right up to the Corkscrew opening.
We parked to the right of the sea lions (left if looking at the Towers) on the grass, that must have been right there.
There were car and coach parks dotted all over, depending on your entry road.
Men in white coats with satchels come to mind!
Not sure if that was the car park or sea lion attendants!

 

[Squiggs]

For anyone interested in the railway from that period, another interesting photo has surfaced recently, for sale on Ebay.

It shows the train in more or less the same position, a few years earlier, alongside the wooden maintenance shed.