2. Wonderworld (Corby, England)
There can be few less likely settings for a rival to Walt Disney World than humble Corby, a former steel town in Northamptonshire, England. However, that didn't stop serious planning taking place for a massive theme park resort that was designed to become the UK's number one attraction, and to rival the Florida resort in terms of attendance.
It was the early 1980s, and Corby had been in a slump since the closure of a British Steel plant in 1980 at the cost of 20,000 jobs. Two men, Gerald Baptist and Ian Quicke, felt they had a concept that would turn around the town's fortunes. They wanted to buil an enormous, Epcot-style educational theme park dubbed Wonderworld - one that would create a completely new tourism and leisure industry in Corby.
The local council were quick to jump on-board with the plan. 1,000 acres of derelict open cast land owned by the British Steel Corporation were set aside, ready to be transformed into a park that would "out-Disney Disney". The first phase was projected to cost a huge £143 million, with the park opening in 1985. Within a decade of the park opening, its backers expected to have spent some £376 million in total.
Group Five were keen to stress that Wonderworld would "not be an amusement park". Instead, it would encourage “maximum participation” by visitors, in a “British version of Disneyland” that would be "unusual in Britain, if not the world". Minister of State for Industry Norman Lamont was on hand to unveil the plans at the Design Centre in London on September 7, 1982, and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had "commended to the country" this "ambitious, imaginative and high-risk" project.
Derek Walker, the chief architect for the new town of Milton Keynes, was brought in to design the resort. At the heart of Wonderworld was to be an enormous, 450-metre-long glass dome "the size of five football pitches", reminiscent of the Crystal Palace that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851. This would host areas dedicated to land, safety, the "Lost Village", air and space, communications, the body and the world. As at Epcot, sponsors would be sought to help fund these exhibits and lend them credibility.
Image via Dan-Dare.org
Celebrities such as Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, astrologer Patrick Moore and Botanist David Bellamy were brought into the design attractions. Deals were also struck to bring in licensed character such as Dan Dare, while renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke had designed much of the air and space-themed land.
Outdoor activities would be concentrated on the outskirts of the sprawling site. This would include an 18-hole golf course designed by Jack Nicklaus, as well as a 10,000-seater sports stadium boasting restaurants and facilities for tuition by leading sports personalities. A huge concert arena, capable of seating 30,000 people, would be designed to resemble a Martian “tripod” fighting machine from War of the Worlds.
Negotiations were held with British Rail around installing a new railway station close to the park, with special trains in Wonderworld livery bringing in visitors from London’s St Pancras. The possibility of British Rail taking over the operation of an on-site monorail system was also discussed, and there were even plans to develop a nearby airstrip.
Wonderworld was expected to be such a big draw that it would pull in guests for entire holidays rather than just day-visits. To accommodate this, 1,000 lodges would be constructed, along with as many as seven hotels. It was predicted that it would attract 4 million visitors per year initially, but that this could rise to as many as 13 million – Walt Disney World levels – eventually.
The first attractions were scheduled to open by the middle of 1985, but investors were not convinced. By 1985, the opening window had been pushed back to early 1988. When 1988 actually rolled around, the date had been shunted to 1992 "to coincide with the opening of the Channel Tunnel".
Image via Northamptonshire Telegraph
Ultimately, financing was never forthcoming, and the project was finally abandoned some fifteen years after it was initially proposed when the council ran out of patience. The only reminder is a scale model, now installed in the Corby Cube, the £47.5m building that opened as part of yet another regeneration scheme for the town in 2010.
Comments
I heard that the talks with the Tolkien estate was for when the Marvel contract with Disney ended. Disney is not expected to renew the contact and Universal will have to close the Marvel area.