Exceptional video - been a good 6/7yrs since I was last able to explore the building, even longer for the West Wing (and for some rooms, not at all!). Thanks for whizzing through and filming this - hopefully they'll realise how silly it is to have it shut and will open it up again soon.
Thanks, and you're very welcome! I agree with your sentiments entirely about getting them open again as soon as possible. Like you say, in recent years it's been hard to catch a day when it's been possible to have a look around.
Fantastic video, glad you were able to record it before they realised. Which we all knew really… It’s criminal the local areas history is kept behind lock and key like this. They need a long term plan, they have lots of options but none of them are explored. A permanent museum of the park/towers, a restoration of some of the rooms, guided tours, tea room in the banqueting hall, restaurant, dungeons attraction, permanent mirror maze. Roofing the talbot gallery as a Hex extension. A hotel. VIP hotel. They’ve not tried to scratch the surface. SMDC need to hold them to account more as the oldest parts and in real disrepair. Covering the talbot gallery and sealing large parts of the building would make a huge difference. And that would be 2/3rd at least with a roof on. Thanks for capturing and keep going!
Great comments, and I pretty much agree with all of them. I do worry about the Talbot gallery and I think a clearance and temporary roof to keep the elements out should be looked at sooner rather than later, in whatever way they find to do it. I also just noticed (I think) that in the Poet's Bay there appears to be a bit of plaster on the floor near the fireplace that could have broken off from around the ceiling somewhere. That's not a good look. I worry about the Music Room window too. That was only restored several years before they began putting the Scarefest shows in there, so that needs to be immaculate when it's finally revealed again.
Thank you for this video, really appreciate it. I had a feeling early on that it wasn't supposed to be open with all the Scarefest equipment lying around. It's a disgrace in my opinion, the ruins are rarely open these days and if so it's only a fraction of the whole place, I know I certainly haven't seen the West Wing since a backstage tour of The Sanctuary in 2012! As you will know, there was a time when the ruins would only close in August to construct Terror of The Towers etc and then it was all dismantled again for the new season. I feel as well, like the ruins were maintained somewhat in the 90's but nowadays they just leave them to rot with mess everywhere. Not a care in the world :(
I’m so glad you managed to capture this! As much as I love the scare mazes and the authentic feeling of them being located within the ruins, I think they need to take a lot more care with the set up. It’s clear to see a lot of the rooms aren’t being preserved like they should be and that’s ultimately down to scarefest attractions. I hope it’s not true that the towers are to be permanently closed to explore freely. Guided tours would be a great feature but I like to have the time to take it all in!
Same here. I find it's nice to be able to linger and explore at your own pace with old buildings like this. By all means have a member of staff in the ruins who knows about the history though incase people have questions, and just to keep an eye on the place. They can afford actors at The Curse and Nemesis etc, so why not in the Towers. Might be an idea.
Honestly, somebody from a heritage nonprofit would probably do it for free or very little money, there are loads of volunteers who do exactly that, stand around old heritage buildings making sure people don't damage things and answering questions as and when.
My dad was one of the people who did work on this building in the 1970s. Remember John Broome met him lots of times. I went to Alton Towers many times when I was a kid.
Very interesting. I wonder if there are any photo's of how it was before they put the new floors in etc? That would be amazing to see. Someone somewhere must have pictures but they're probably shut away in an old album in a cupboard somewhere (or on 35mm slides). Great memories to have for you! Thanks for your interesting comment :)
I’ve only been to Alton Towers once and I thought it was a real shame that a historic property was in essence just a dumping ground for theme park stuff. It feels like an insult to history. Such a great tour of the place though. Just a shadow of itself with the decay being the haunted aspect. Thank you for uploading this! 😊
This is a fantastic resource for posterity, thank you for uploading it. I didn't realise they'd taken to closing them off lately, that really frustrates me. The Towers and grounds were the only reasons I went, I can't stomach roller coasters any more!
Good to see theyve tidied it up a fair bit. About 18 months ago there were old archives just left everywhere in the room 2:30 in. Cleared a lot of it away and locked it up safely but there was a lot of damaged files left around. Looks like someones cleaned that right up!
That's shocking! At least it sounds like they've made a start on clearing up though. It's really bad how they've treated the place in recent years though.
Hello I reported it to Alton Towers management and they had the archives moved and locked away. I guess they turned up to find youd already done most of it yourself !
Interesting video. I've only been to Alton Towers and that was in the very late 70s, before the roller coasters and when the main attraction was the gardens. I also remember going to a planetarium. At that time you were free to explore the shell of the building but I can't remember how much was accessible.
Yes, I think that was pretty much around the time they first opened the Towers ruins for people to explore. The Planetarium was probably very new too. Thanks :)
Excellent walkaround - such a shame to see the state of disrepair inside. Interesting to see the remnants of The Attic scarefest attraction in there too. Still hopeful that they'll work with historians to someday restore a handful of rooms to how they would have been, with replicated wooden panelling etc, would be an attraction in itself - a living museum even. It does make me wonder though why the majority of The Attic gets removed through the main season, even in areas that were never accessible in the days that the ruins were partially open for roaming
Thanks! Yeah, it's a mystery what goes on with the Scarefest stuff. Hopefully they're transitioning to having more attractions outside the Towers so that the house can be opened to visitors again one day. Not holding my breath though to be honest haha. Adam :)
@@AltonTowersMemories - Is a bit of a mystery, would be such a valuable asset to the resort if areas were made accessible again. Suppose it's tricky with what they can and cant do in terms of restoration, although looking at some of the upper levels the brickwork is actually pretty well preserved. Not sure how far that interior brickwork dates back though - although looking at the remains of the wooden structure overlay it does seem to be original. Wonder why the majority of the interior walls were brick on upper levels yet the ground floor is mainly stone. Does seem patchy in places so perhaps later attempts at restoration - Interesting for sure! Jake :)
@@adventuregroupdevelopments Yeah, most of the West Wing was built from brick with stone facings on the outside. Basically, because it was one of the later parts of the house to be built and I suppose the initial architect of this wing (Thomas Fradgley I think) or the 16th Earl obviously decided by this point to use brick on the internal walls for whatever reason. I think the Music Room however still used stone :)
I always thought Alton tower should do two prices. £10 to enter the park, and full price for a Ride Pass. There is so much to see in Alton Towers, but not at the expense of ride time. Im sure many locals would love to just spend time in the gardens and tower grounds.
I did have a feeling whilst watching that it shouldn't have been open, it looked like a health and safety nightmare with piles of wood everywhere with nails sticking out etc. Such a shame they don't use it for an attraction of some sort, like a really good haunted house. And to think Universal spend millions on mocking this sort of thing up when Alton have already got it.
Yes, all the bits and pieces lying around are due to a seasonal scare attraction, and the growth of that has meant that the Towers have been shut off to people who just want to explore them outside of the Halloween season.
I used to love walking around the old house and going across into the ‘secret garden’ which is no longer accessible - such a shame - I’m the “family bag holder” and the gardens and the house used to be my entertainment
I suspect the complexity and cost of rigging and de-rigging the set leads to what we see here. When the attraction was first designed it was much simpler and although still time consuming, was easier to manage. Clearly there are less people interested in the long term future and care of the house than 20-30 years ago. Sad to see.
Yes, I think that's precisely the issue. It was noticeable as soon as the Scarefest event started growing in size that the amount of days the ruins were open each season started to dwindle, until it eventually became nothing a couple of years ago. I believe in the last few weeks I've seen Alton have put in some various planning applications that could (possibly) be related to future Scarefest locations away from the ruins. If more scare attractions were to move away from the Towers then there would be hope of the ruins being opened again. That's all speculation on those plans at the moment though.
such a huge shame they close the towers off for scare mazes. yeah im sure the halloween event is amazing but id rather be able to look around the ruins
My recollection is the floors were renewed as a lot of them were basically ruined. I would only have been about five or six when that work was being done so it’s very difficult to remember but stuff was stripped out. There was always talk about people going to live in the building and they were living accommodation and cottages on site.
Yes, that's right. A business had previously stripped out anything they could sell like oak panelling and other wood and apparently even lead from the roofs, which led to water damage etc. It was obviously unsafe for people to go around the house due to that so new floors were put in.
Yeah, there was a plan for a self-guided (signposts etc) tour kind of thing to be open all season (apart from Scarefest), and official planning went through Staffs Moorlands, but that just went quiet a couple of years back. Is what you heard different from that? Like, only access with a physical staff guide kind of thing? They need to do something. They can't just mean to keep everybody out forever. It's been a couple of years now of them hardly ever being open. That's just not good enough really.
@@AltonTowersMemories At the Q&A I had asked about the future of the building and they had said they planned to close it for the public to enter except on guided tours. It’s not the right way at all for the future of the building but they’ll profit off of it in the end so what does it matter to them.
Where you say that it shouldnt have been open, do you mean the Towers as a whole or just the west wing? I'm visiting in a couple of weeks and would love to be able to explore at least some of the ruins.
The Towers ruins as a whole have been shut for the past couple of years, apart from the odd few days where they probably forgot to keep them closed. They just don't seem to want them open at the moment unfortunately.
What happened to all it's internals ? I know Army gunners were there during WW2 and I visited in 89, kids went on amusements, I got stuck in the house and was well fascinated. Churnet Valley railway pounding up past.... There was a massive stone fireplace in situ... Why was it stripped out, it's only Victorian after all...
The place was stripped of all the wood panelling, lead from the roofs etc during the 1950s by some businessmen who bought the place. With the lead gone from the roofs it was no longer weather sealed and so was subjected to water damage etc. That was the end of it basically and the floors etc were no longer safe. A fire was even started in one part of the house which obviously didn't help either!
Yes, they don't open them any more. Only for paid tours occasionally. Prices are around £10 I think, but you don't get to see that much of the house. You won't see the West Wing that's in this video. Adam :)
Exceptional video - been a good 6/7yrs since I was last able to explore the building, even longer for the West Wing (and for some rooms, not at all!). Thanks for whizzing through and filming this - hopefully they'll realise how silly it is to have it shut and will open it up again soon.
Thanks, and you're very welcome! I agree with your sentiments entirely about getting them open again as soon as possible. Like you say, in recent years it's been hard to catch a day when it's been possible to have a look around.
Fantastic video, glad you were able to record it before they realised. Which we all knew really…
It’s criminal the local areas history is kept behind lock and key like this. They need a long term plan, they have lots of options but none of them are explored.
A permanent museum of the park/towers, a restoration of some of the rooms, guided tours, tea room in the banqueting hall, restaurant, dungeons attraction, permanent mirror maze. Roofing the talbot gallery as a Hex extension. A hotel. VIP hotel. They’ve not tried to scratch the surface. SMDC need to hold them to account more as the oldest parts and in real disrepair.
Covering the talbot gallery and sealing large parts of the building would make a huge difference. And that would be 2/3rd at least with a roof on.
Thanks for capturing and keep going!
Great comments, and I pretty much agree with all of them. I do worry about the Talbot gallery and I think a clearance and temporary roof to keep the elements out should be looked at sooner rather than later, in whatever way they find to do it. I also just noticed (I think) that in the Poet's Bay there appears to be a bit of plaster on the floor near the fireplace that could have broken off from around the ceiling somewhere. That's not a good look. I worry about the Music Room window too. That was only restored several years before they began putting the Scarefest shows in there, so that needs to be immaculate when it's finally revealed again.
Yeah, I agree. I hate that a historical house and site are just being used as a dump for a theme park.
Thank you for this video, really appreciate it. I had a feeling early on that it wasn't supposed to be open with all the Scarefest equipment lying around. It's a disgrace in my opinion, the ruins are rarely open these days and if so it's only a fraction of the whole place, I know I certainly haven't seen the West Wing since a backstage tour of The Sanctuary in 2012! As you will know, there was a time when the ruins would only close in August to construct Terror of The Towers etc and then it was all dismantled again for the new season. I feel as well, like the ruins were maintained somewhat in the 90's but nowadays they just leave them to rot with mess everywhere. Not a care in the world :(
Absolutely agreed. Hopefully they have a plan to provide better access sometime soon :)
I’m so glad you managed to capture this! As much as I love the scare mazes and the authentic feeling of them being located within the ruins, I think they need to take a lot more care with the set up. It’s clear to see a lot of the rooms aren’t being preserved like they should be and that’s ultimately down to scarefest attractions. I hope it’s not true that the towers are to be permanently closed to explore freely. Guided tours would be a great feature but I like to have the time to take it all in!
Same here. I find it's nice to be able to linger and explore at your own pace with old buildings like this. By all means have a member of staff in the ruins who knows about the history though incase people have questions, and just to keep an eye on the place. They can afford actors at The Curse and Nemesis etc, so why not in the Towers. Might be an idea.
Honestly, somebody from a heritage nonprofit would probably do it for free or very little money, there are loads of volunteers who do exactly that, stand around old heritage buildings making sure people don't damage things and answering questions as and when.
@@boiledelephant Absolutely :)
My dad was one of the people who did work on this building in the 1970s. Remember John Broome met him lots of times. I went to Alton Towers many times when I was a kid.
Very interesting. I wonder if there are any photo's of how it was before they put the new floors in etc? That would be amazing to see. Someone somewhere must have pictures but they're probably shut away in an old album in a cupboard somewhere (or on 35mm slides). Great memories to have for you! Thanks for your interesting comment :)
I’ve only been to Alton Towers once and I thought it was a real shame that a historic property was in essence just a dumping ground for theme park stuff. It feels like an insult to history.
Such a great tour of the place though. Just a shadow of itself with the decay being the haunted aspect. Thank you for uploading this! 😊
You're very welcome! I'm glad that you found it interesting, Adam :)
This is a fantastic resource for posterity, thank you for uploading it. I didn't realise they'd taken to closing them off lately, that really frustrates me. The Towers and grounds were the only reasons I went, I can't stomach roller coasters any more!
Thank you :)
Good to see theyve tidied it up a fair bit. About 18 months ago there were old archives just left everywhere in the room 2:30 in. Cleared a lot of it away and locked it up safely but there was a lot of damaged files left around. Looks like someones cleaned that right up!
That's shocking! At least it sounds like they've made a start on clearing up though. It's really bad how they've treated the place in recent years though.
Hello I reported it to Alton Towers management and they had the archives moved and locked away. I guess they turned up to find youd already done most of it yourself !
Interesting video. I've only been to Alton Towers and that was in the very late 70s, before the roller coasters and when the main attraction was the gardens. I also remember going to a planetarium. At that time you were free to explore the shell of the building but I can't remember how much was accessible.
Yes, I think that was pretty much around the time they first opened the Towers ruins for people to explore. The Planetarium was probably very new too. Thanks :)
Excellent walkaround - such a shame to see the state of disrepair inside. Interesting to see the remnants of The Attic scarefest attraction in there too.
Still hopeful that they'll work with historians to someday restore a handful of rooms to how they would have been, with replicated wooden panelling etc, would be an attraction in itself - a living museum even.
It does make me wonder though why the majority of The Attic gets removed through the main season, even in areas that were never accessible in the days that the ruins were partially open for roaming
Thanks! Yeah, it's a mystery what goes on with the Scarefest stuff. Hopefully they're transitioning to having more attractions outside the Towers so that the house can be opened to visitors again one day. Not holding my breath though to be honest haha. Adam :)
@@AltonTowersMemories - Is a bit of a mystery, would be such a valuable asset to the resort if areas were made accessible again. Suppose it's tricky with what they can and cant do in terms of restoration, although looking at some of the upper levels the brickwork is actually pretty well preserved. Not sure how far that interior brickwork dates back though - although looking at the remains of the wooden structure overlay it does seem to be original. Wonder why the majority of the interior walls were brick on upper levels yet the ground floor is mainly stone. Does seem patchy in places so perhaps later attempts at restoration - Interesting for sure! Jake :)
@@adventuregroupdevelopments Yeah, most of the West Wing was built from brick with stone facings on the outside. Basically, because it was one of the later parts of the house to be built and I suppose the initial architect of this wing (Thomas Fradgley I think) or the 16th Earl obviously decided by this point to use brick on the internal walls for whatever reason. I think the Music Room however still used stone :)
I always thought Alton tower should do two prices. £10 to enter the park, and full price for a Ride Pass.
There is so much to see in Alton Towers, but not at the expense of ride time.
Im sure many locals would love to just spend time in the gardens and tower grounds.
They could also sell more food and beverage to the house/garden guests :)
If only Challenge Aneka was still running. She'd have a gang of blokes clearing that debris up in no time! ❤😂
I did have a feeling whilst watching that it shouldn't have been open, it looked like a health and safety nightmare with piles of wood everywhere with nails sticking out etc. Such a shame they don't use it for an attraction of some sort, like a really good haunted house. And to think Universal spend millions on mocking this sort of thing up when Alton have already got it.
Yes, all the bits and pieces lying around are due to a seasonal scare attraction, and the growth of that has meant that the Towers have been shut off to people who just want to explore them outside of the Halloween season.
I like that music from your video in background. Thanks Adam 3:51
I used to love walking around the old house and going across into the ‘secret garden’ which is no longer accessible - such a shame - I’m the “family bag holder” and the gardens and the house used to be my entertainment
Oh yes, the little garden next door with the little dovecote :)
I suspect the complexity and cost of rigging and de-rigging the set leads to what we see here. When the attraction was first designed it was much simpler and although still time consuming, was easier to manage. Clearly there are less people interested in the long term future and care of the house than 20-30 years ago. Sad to see.
Yes, I think that's precisely the issue. It was noticeable as soon as the Scarefest event started growing in size that the amount of days the ruins were open each season started to dwindle, until it eventually became nothing a couple of years ago. I believe in the last few weeks I've seen Alton have put in some various planning applications that could (possibly) be related to future Scarefest locations away from the ruins. If more scare attractions were to move away from the Towers then there would be hope of the ruins being opened again. That's all speculation on those plans at the moment though.
Years ago in sure there was a large model railway set up in there.
Yes, this was inside the large chapel building :)
such a huge shame they close the towers off for scare mazes. yeah im sure the halloween event is amazing but id rather be able to look around the ruins
Really interesting!
Thank you. Really glad you enjoyed it! Adam :)
My recollection is the floors were renewed as a lot of them were basically ruined. I would only have been about five or six when that work was being done so it’s very difficult to remember but stuff was stripped out. There was always talk about people going to live in the building and they were living accommodation and cottages on site.
Yes, that's right. A business had previously stripped out anything they could sell like oak panelling and other wood and apparently even lead from the roofs, which led to water damage etc. It was obviously unsafe for people to go around the house due to that so new floors were put in.
The plan is to close it permanently with only guided tours as access inside, they said this at Attraction Source’s Scaremazing event.
Yeah, there was a plan for a self-guided (signposts etc) tour kind of thing to be open all season (apart from Scarefest), and official planning went through Staffs Moorlands, but that just went quiet a couple of years back. Is what you heard different from that? Like, only access with a physical staff guide kind of thing? They need to do something. They can't just mean to keep everybody out forever. It's been a couple of years now of them hardly ever being open. That's just not good enough really.
@@AltonTowersMemories At the Q&A I had asked about the future of the building and they had said they planned to close it for the public to enter except on guided tours. It’s not the right way at all for the future of the building but they’ll profit off of it in the end so what does it matter to them.
If they can’t take care of it and make use of it the building should be compulsory purchased and made into a separate attraction.
Where you say that it shouldnt have been open, do you mean the Towers as a whole or just the west wing? I'm visiting in a couple of weeks and would love to be able to explore at least some of the ruins.
The Towers ruins as a whole have been shut for the past couple of years, apart from the odd few days where they probably forgot to keep them closed. They just don't seem to want them open at the moment unfortunately.
Such a shame they do not try a restore it
What happened to all it's internals ? I know Army gunners were there during WW2 and I visited in 89, kids went on amusements, I got stuck in the house and was well fascinated. Churnet Valley railway pounding up past.... There was a massive stone fireplace in situ... Why was it stripped out, it's only Victorian after all...
The place was stripped of all the wood panelling, lead from the roofs etc during the 1950s by some businessmen who bought the place. With the lead gone from the roofs it was no longer weather sealed and so was subjected to water damage etc. That was the end of it basically and the floors etc were no longer safe. A fire was even started in one part of the house which obviously didn't help either!
Was closed went I went three weeks ago
Yes, they don't open them any more. Only for paid tours occasionally. Prices are around £10 I think, but you don't get to see that much of the house. You won't see the West Wing that's in this video. Adam :)
Oh hey its been a while since. Good to hear from you again
And you :)