2. Woburn Festival Park

Back in the 1980s, the Tussauds Group was looking to establish itself as the leading theme park operator in the UK. Backed by owner Pearson’s mega-bucks, it had already taken over Chessington Zoo and turned it into the exotic Chessington World of Adventures. By 1989, though, it was determined to overtake Alton Towers as the UK’s number one. After discussions with owner the Duke of Bedford, it decided to build a sprawling theme park in the grounds of the historic Woburn Abbey.

The Abbey was already home to Woburn Safari Park, where visitors could drive around large animal enclosures. This would be incorporated into the theme park’s design, although guests would now board “safari jeeps” for their journey. To help overcome issues around planning consent and noise restrictions, the rest of the theme park would be hidden away in the Abbey’s extensive woodlands. Duel, racing wooden roller coasters would be the main attraction, and guests would also be able to get soaked on a log flume and a rapids ride. Animals would feature in other attractions, such as the Jungle Queen boat ride.

What went wrong? Woburn Festival Park, as it was named, failed to gain planning approval from the local authorities, who were determined to preserve the “quiet atmosphere” of the area surrounding Woburn Abbey. Tussauds bought Alton Towers instead.

1. WestCOT

While it was planning Port Disney, Disney was considering an alternative approach for the Disneyland Resort. In the same year that it announced Port Disney, it also announced WestCOT, a West Coast version of the popular Epcot at Walt Disney World. It never intended to build both parks, but was instead playing the local authorities off against each other in a bid to secure incentives to build one park or the other.

Like Epcot, WestCOT was to be split into two main areas: Future World and World Showcase. Future World would host an enormous, 300-foot geodesic sphere inspired by Epcot’s Spaceship Earth. Inside would be the SpaceStation Earth attraction, while several other attractions based on those at Epcot were also planned. Unlike Epcot’s World Showcase, WestCOT’s version would not have featured pavilions inspired by individual countries. Instead, they were to be themed around regions, and would have hosted both rides and restaurants. An enormous boat ride, the World Cruise, would have passed through all of them .

What went wrong? Just as with Port Disney, a combination of financial constraints caused by the disastrous debut of EuroDisney and opposition from local residents led to the cancellation of WestCOT in 1995. Eventually, the much less ambitious Disney California Adventure was built on the site instead.

We may never get to visit any of these amazing theme parks, but at least we can enjoy them through concept artwork and designs. Many of the rides designed for these parks were installed elsewhere instead, so we can even enjoy a little piece of them for real!