If you take your swimming costume to Alton Towers today, you might well be planning a trip to the waterpark, but guests in the 1950s might have packed their trunks for a trip to the park itself. Almost 50 years before Cariba Creek opened, the Paddling Pool was one of the first attractions at Alton Towers, offering guests a cooling wade as part of their day out.
In the park's earliest years, one of the shallower corners of the lake in front of the courtyard (the same lake that now hosts the Battle Galleons) was set aside as a paddling pool. This original paddling pool proved so popular that in the early 60s a much larger purpose built pool was constructedon the far side of the lake, on the lawn in front of the towers, away from the car parks.
The pool might have been the first attraction in this part of the park, but it would not be the last, and the area that would become the Springfield Centre slowly built up alongside the pool. This development went into overdrive during the 80s and the paddling pool gained new neighbours, such as the Blackhole and the other attractions of Fantasy World.
On hot summer days, guests continued to enjoy the cool waters right through to the 90s, but by now there were grey clouds on the horizon for the Paddling Pool.
When Tussauds took over the park, they were keen on re-inventing Alton Towers as the UK's premier theme park. In the early years of their ownership, they focused on purging the park of attractions that did not fit with this image, including many of the remaining attractions from before the 1980s. The Paddling Pool was one of the early casualties of the park's new direction and closed at the end of the 1992 season.
After closure, the pool was filled in and eventually became home to the Goal Striker, now known as the Games Bunker.
But the story didn't end there... it is quite likely that the paddling pool is actually still in the park today, buried just beneath the Games Bunker. If you look down at the floor in this area, you can still see the outline of the paddling pool in the paving from when it was filled in almost 30 years ago.