The area at the back of the theme park, just beyond the Towers themselves, is one of the most rethemed areas of the park since it came into use as a Fairground in the 60s before being turned into Talbot Street in 1981, which the area takes inspiration from today.
Here we take a look at some of the plans and concept artwork that has been produced when re-theming the area throughout the past 30 years.
The first two images are concepts we believe the park drew up for Talbot Street. The first is the concept for the block of the street that was built in 1987, containing the Motor Museum and Raven’s Den Shop. In the plan you can see the block has an Ice Cream Parlour, a Vintage Motor Showroom and a third corner unit. What was actually built is believed to have been quite different to what the concepts show. The second are concepts for an un-built Ice Cream Parlour (possibly the same one seen in the above plan). The ideas look very exciting and would have brought a truly immersive dining experience to the Towers, taking guests back to the 1950s. The third image shows Doom and Sons as an artist thought it might look way back in 1980.
Shown are two concepts for Bertie Bassett’s Fun House. Eventually Bertie Bassett’s Sweet Shop arrived in The Land of Make Believe (actually opening when the area was still Talbot Street). The name on these concepts seems to suggest the neighbouring playground was also planned to take on the Bertie Bassett, but this was later dropped in favour of Children’s World. Of the two concepts, the second is very similar to what was eventually built, and still exists in a similar form today.
When the Land of Make Believe was reimagined as Cred Street the central attraction was Nickelodeon: Outta Contol, or indeed Nickelodeon: Mind Maze as it appears in this concept showing how the façade of the attraction looks. The second image is the plan for the inside of the ride, shop and café.
When McDonald’s came to the park in 1998 the Snack in a Box restaurant was re-imagined into the Cred Street Diner. The restaurant was quite faithful to the concept (as shown in the third image) which is still fondly remembered by many today.
The fourth image sees us skip forward to 2005, with a drawing of the frontage of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which would be built almost identically as to how this concept imagined it.
Then moving to 2006 for the final two images, we have some concepts of what the Driving School would look like when built at the other end of Cred Street.
