In March 2024, Alton Towers submitted planning applications for two separate ‘facilities buildings’ to be located in back-of-house areas near to Gloomy Wood and Dark Forest. Whilst their exact use was left ambiguous by the planning documents, with these being of the same design to Survival Games, a scare maze at Thorpe Park’s FRIGHT NIGHTS, it seems that these could provide new venues for Scarefest attractions from 2024 onwards.
Both buildings are of an identical design, consisting of three shipping containers down each side and a domed tensile fabric roof above the area in-between. The buildings are also noted to be fully accessible in their design.
Although the plans have been officially labelled as ‘facilities buildings’, a closer look at some of the documents, like the ‘no dig surface detail’ reveals that the drawings were previously referenced as “ATR Scaremaze”, with the drawing numbers starting ATSM, prior to submission to the local authority. The fact that one of the buildings will be taking the place of an existing scare attraction, also seems to be another indication of their intended use, given that it would be surprising for the Resort to want to lose a location for a potential seasonal attraction. These new buildings would also aid the Resort in reducing its reliance on utilising the Towers themselves for scare mazes, which is understood to be an objective in order to improve their accessibility as a heritage asset.
Gloomy Wood
One building is proposed to be located in the area between The Curse at Alton Manor and the Monorail maintenance yard. New entrance and exit paths are shown coming off from the existing pathway that provides access to the toilet block located along the walkway between Gloomy Wood and Forbidden Valley.
Dark Forest
Another building is proposed to be located in the back-of-house area north of Dark Forest, which has been the location of Darkest Depths for the last few seasons. The containers for the existing attraction are therefore due to be removed to make way for the new building, along with some of the vegetation in the immediate vicinity.
