Amusement parks, theme parks, ride photography

Inside Alton Towers Black Hole Tent

April 20th, 2008 • Related • Filed Under

Ive had this set of photographs lying around for some, Ive had a couple of offers from various people to publish them but I suppose ive been a bit selfish really and kept them to myself.

A bit of History about the ride. The Black hole is a Schwarzkopf Jet star 2 coaster with a length of 1919ft, Height of 44’3 and a duration of 1min 50 seconds. It was originally brought to Alton Towers as the Black hole in 1983 before going through a couple of name changes, New Black Hole, Black Hole 2 and finally back to Black hole again. The ride was closed in 2006.

So finally heres a set of photographs taken in July 2007 from inside the Black Hole Tent at Alton Towers.

From outside, some of the old artwork.

Some of the original theming still hanging about

A bit dark but showing the full dome.

Track lying across the floor

Shot of the cars.

Clearly showing the supports still in place.

The ride cars.

Control systems

The loading bay, still pretty much intact.

If you want to use any photographs on this blog please get in touch paul@ridemad.com im quite happy to share and have high resolution copies of everything used, to see the complete gallery visit the Ridemad Gallery

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Thanks for Reading.

There Are 63 Responses So Far. »

  1. Comment by Admin on 20 October 2011:

    Hi,
    THe Tower of the Terrors is in the towers yes, you enter it near Hex. The Zombies are as you walk past the hospitality suite past spin ball whizzer then its just on the left near the lake, its only small – it could be the cave not sure. i didnt notice anything else that was new in the area..

    Have a good time 😉
    hope this helps.

  2. Comment by kelly on 26 October 2011:

    Im due to go to Alton Towers on 3rd Nov, Im looking forward to it but always feel sad that the Black Hole has gone, it was a fab ride. Weird still seeing the tent erected and not in use, I remember I waited for hours to go on it :(

  3. Comment by tc on 1 January 2012:

    hi there im going to buy the black hole from alton towers when i work for them.

  4. Comment by Admin on 31 January 2012:

    They dont have it anymore, you may need a trip further south to pick it up 😉

  5. Comment by matt on 11 February 2012:

    The black hole tent shall be demolished in 4th quarter of 2012. It shall be replaced by a new ride opening in march 2013, codenamed SW7. Google it 😀 R.I.P black hole

  6. Comment by tc on 23 February 2012:

    the black hole is at my house i bourt it of them in half team

  7. Comment by r sutton on 9 April 2012:

    when the black hole opened it did close again for modifcations firstly alterations were made to the track at bottom of first drop as it was deemed to unpleasent for the rider also when it first opened they were single cars when it reopened two cars were put together.there was never anyone killed on it that was the space invader in blackpool which i ridden as well over the years there as been some good rides come and go thunderlooper being one of them.the blackhole in its day was a awesome ride but would be outdated to todays rides.alton towers still manages to thrill people with its top class rides roll on sw7 r.i.p blackhole

  8. Comment by tc on 3 May 2012:

    i have up graded it and it works smothly it has not brocken down yet

  9. Comment by tc on 3 May 2012:

    i hat to bey a new tent of it thot it cost me £1000 to replase the tent.

  10. Comment by Michael on 16 January 2013:

    Black Hole was a fantastic ride back in the years and it was supported like any other coaster. It’s a shame that its now gone; the photos are really brilliant, i can just picture how great it was back then.

  11. Comment by Claudi on 16 June 2013:

    I’d never been on it, and its a real shame. I’m glad the smiler is replacing it though. It always made me feel a little sad looking at an empty tent and thinking about how another piece of coaster history is left to rot.
    I think they should have put the ride car on display or something out front, right next to the corkscrew monument.

  12. Comment by Admin on 20 June 2013:

    I went to go on smiler on Tuesday, 2hr 30mins queue. no thanks, ill revisit later in the year 😉

    I miss the black hole too. It was one of those rides we always rode on when visiting the park. Took me right back when I took those photographs 😉

  13. Comment by steve on 23 January 2016:

    The black hole closed due to health and safety getting tighter as rides have to places to get off in fires etc and it would cost too much and was too small inside for all the stairs and platforms needed to make it safe so they had to close it for good.but it was a brill ride in its day rip black hole

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