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 was correctly assumed that these would provide new venues for Scarefest attractions from 2024 onwards.
Both buildings were 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 were also noted to be fully accessible in their design.
Although the plans were officially labelled as ‘facilities buildings’, a closer look at some of the documents, like the ‘no dig surface detail’ revealed that the drawings were previously referenced as “ATR Scaremaze”, with the drawing numbers starting ATSM, prior to submission to the local authority. These new buildings would also aid the Resort in reducing its reliance on utilising the Towers themselves for scare mazes, which was understood to be an objective in order to improve their accessibility as a heritage asset.
Gloomy Wood
One building was proposed to be located in the area between The Curse at Alton Manor and the Monorail maintenance yard. New entrance and exit paths were shown coming off from the existing pathway that provides access to the toilet block located along the walkway between Gloomy Wood and Forbidden Valley.
This building was first utilised during Scarefest 2024 for COMPOUND.
Dark Forest
Another building was proposed to be located in the back-of-house area north of Dark Forest, which had been the location of Darkest Depths for the preceding few seasons. The containers for the existing attraction were therefore proposed to be removed to make way for the new building, along with some of the vegetation in the immediate vicinity.
Although installed during the 2024 season, this building is yet to be utilised.
