Opened in
1992, the Haunted House was a classic ride that represented part of
the first major investment made in the park by Tussauds. Although you can't tell
from the outside of the house, the ride building is
in fact the size of a football pitch!
Having taken an eerie tour through the ominous neighbouring
graveyard visitors would enter the house itself, where they would
queue under the watchful eyes of the house's former occupants. In
fact once you'd entered the dimly lit surroundings of the house's
play room you could be forgiven for thinking their eyes really were
following you. Having been entertained by Emily and Henry Alton,
visitors moved on to be greeted by a coffin style
car, in which groups of six would be taken on a scary 8 minute journey
of the house.
The ride would
take you on a tour of the house to meet some of it's more
interesting inhabitants, whether they reside in the seemingly
endless Great Hall or the more sinister sounding Ghost Corridor or
Hall of Spiders. Once departing the house itself, the coffins would weave
through the Ghoulish Garden before heading into the finale in a
deadly looking swamp.
The Haunted
House was replaced by Duel in 2003, which brought an interactive
element to the Haunted House. Many of the features of the Haunted
House still exist in the new attraction with the only major loss
being the Swamp scene which disappeared under the mad professor's
lab at the end of the ride
For a
definitive guide to Alton Tower's Haunted House, its construction
and history, you may want to look at HauntedOne's
Haunted
House Website.
