Alton Towers House Conservatory History

[@ajadrew]

Interesting to see the old photos etc against the new - The ferns at 9:17 made me smile, they thrive outside as well as inside.

[@AltonTowersMemories]

Thanks for the nice comments ShadowTD. And yes, I have also heard that the refurbishments are linked with ride development. I'm pretty sure that is the case.

[@ShadowTD]

Great video - good job with digging up the old pictures. As I understand, the reasons behind the recent stages of refurbishment are tied in to ride development - the first stage was part of the golden handcuffs for Hex, and the full refurb was a condition of all the tree removal for Thirteen.

[@ExpensivePink90]

This section of Towers is my baby after I worked with Towers designing a tea room to go inside, I have also recently given Squggles ( Phil Lofthouse) some very detail plans of the conservatory from 1992.

[@dawiddadun3044]

Nice video. A slight error is that Princess Victoria visited in 1832 not 1824. She recorded the visit in her diary as a 13 yr old. She would only have been 5 in 1824.

[@thethemeparkcentral]

fantastic video.

[@aliceheatherlogan]

Does anyone know why they removed the ferns? It was nice seeing some life in there

[@AltonTowersMemories]

I have no idea but I genuinely often wonder that too. It was done during the restoration but I'm not sure why they didn't make some effort to keep them, or at least a little. It surely would have been possible...

[@aliceheatherlogan]

@@AltonTowersMemories I wonder if they were planted elsewhere or just thrown away, seems a shame considering the age of them

[@AltonTowersMemories]

@@aliceheatherlogan Probably just thrown away to be honest, but you never know!

[@AltonTowersMemories]

Alice, my dear. I have a definitive answer for you :) I was on a tour/chat with the head gardener today and I asked this question. Apparently, people were tripping over the shrubs (H&S) etc so when the conservatories were restored they were removed and basically that was the end of them.

[@aliceheatherlogan]

@@AltonTowersMemories Wow thank you for the info! It's a shame the fact that people don't look where they're going caused them to be removed, but I suppose it's cheaper than putting a barrier around them to keep people away ☺️

[@AltonTowersMemories]

Very interesting :) So did the tea room actually happen?

[@AltonTowersMemories]

Thanks :)

[@hpfan1325]

I know the family who lived at Alton towers

[@gerryracer]

Sadly no.