Trauma Towers
Trauma Towers was a themed funhouse and haunted attraction based at Pleasure Beach Blackpool in the North of the United Kingdom.[1]
Formerly The Haunted Hotel, the attraction was a walk through a themed funhouse, themed as a dark traditionally decorated "haunted" hotel, in which you were to make your way to the "Baronial Dining Hall" where you had been invited to dinner by the host, so the story goes. The outside of the hotel is painted blue, and ramshackle with animatronics behind windows, and some plaques and signs on the front, including an AA award saying it is a 3 star hotel. The area outside Trauma Towers was called Trauma Towers plaza, and included gargoyles, ornate stone benches and a fountain which had blood-red stained water. This area has since been taken over by the dancing fountain water show.
As of 2009, the attraction was standing but not operating, and as of 2010 the attraction was discontinued, and is no longer a functioning attraction. Although the facade is still present in its entirety, the upper floors have been gutted.
One of the reasons for the attraction's discontinuiation is that the entrance area was getting very wet due to a new large water fountain feature being erected outside the main entrance, and due to health and safety reasons, the attraction had to close.
The old "reception" entrance is now used as a photographic portrait studio.
Walkthrough
- Lobby - Where a 'bellboy' would allow you into the hotel via an old fashioned check-in, with wood panelling, classic paintings and antlers and photos on the wall, including humorous wanted ads and signs, as well as keys hanging on the wall behind the reception.
- Garden Room - A dimly lit room overgrown with plants, some of which would swipe out at your ankles as you passed.
- Lounge - With a heavily slanted floor.
- Dark Corridor - With some textured floors and a plank-walk across some bubbling water.
- Crypt - With a sudden tilting floor by a broken and empty stone coffin behind railings, although sometimes the coffin contained a skeleton.
- Furnace Room - A large furnace dominates one corner, chains dangled from above, and a bound female body sat in a tin bath by the furnace, her head concealed within a tied sack.
- Staircase - Leading upwards, with a large werewolf head mounted on the wall above.
- Bedroom - In which we saw a figure in bed, holding a crucifix up against a vampirical ghost who was hovering in the corner of the room, sometimes this ghost would be holding a brain.
- Games Corridor - In which we saw several ghouls playing Pool with a floating ball, the ghoul gags included the Cryptkeeper and a ghoul with a spinning head, as well as Vampire children with glowing eyes.
- Balcony - A sponge-floor enclosed walkway with a window on one side, through which you could see down over the Lobby. This corridor had a false end using mirrors to give the effect of more doors in a longer corridor ahead.
- Dressing Room - Involving the classic gag of a beauty looking in the mirror, to see herself transform to a ghoul.
- Library - With some slanting floors, books slid in and out, a fireplace flickered, some wall decorations moved about, a large gargoyle with red eyes dominated a corner of the room. Also in this room, a false door arch threatened to drop on visitors, there was seating in two corners, and occasionally 'bellboy' staff members hid in this room.
- Bathroom - A bathroom with a flickering light only allowed a brief glimpse into a filthy bathroom with a blocked up toilet, broken sink, and overflowing bathtub, in which a female figure appeared to be submerged and drowned.
- Organ Corridor - A corridor with doors (meant to be hotel rooms) on one side whereas on the left hand side an animatronic of a Phantom playing an organ could be seen in blacklight. This was also the waiting area for the "Baronial Dining Hall", in which a recording played advising pregnant women and people with back problems and heart disorders to pass through the hall via another path.
- The Baronial Dining Hall - a large room containing a tagada ride and heavily themed to an old banquet hall, complete with a large tableclothed and set table in the centre of the ride, and artwork, suits of armour, statues, flags, chandelliers and furniture etc. around the room.
The Baronial Dining Hall
Once seated around the table, the lights would go out and footsteps are heard moving across the room, and a breathy noise was heard, as a shot of air was blown behind the necks of riders. Above, you would see a demon figure in the ceiling with flashing lights, as the lights went out, you would hear flapping noises, and the demon was then shown on the other side of the room in the ceiling, again with flashing lights. As the lights went out, a louder roar was heard, a crunch, and a scream, at which point a small amount of water was released from the ceiling over riders, to imitate a demon spitting on diners.
The chandellier lights would then light again, and the ride then spun very fast in one direction as the orchestral score played, and a piston occasionally made one half of the "bowl" shoot upwards and down again.
Upon the ride ending, visitors would leave via two double doors on the other side of the Baronial Dining Hall, which led outside to the front of the attraction.