Cred Street

Cred Street was a magical land for children, with a host of exciting attractions and entertainment which changed relatively frequently over the area’s lifespan.

The area first became Cred Street in 1997 with the arrival of Nickelodeon: Outta Control, the area’s short-lived signature attraction. The other feature of the new area was the brand new Children’s Fun Factory show in the theatre. The rest of attractions were carried over from the area’s previous guise as The Land Of Make Believe, these include the park’s signature children’s dark ride Toyland Tours, the classic Mini Apple Coaster as well as the Vintage Car Ride, Crown Carousel and a children’s indoor play area.

The area can’t be said to have been the best addition the park ever made, with the Mini Apple Coaster closing at the end of its first season and the area’s central ride Nickelodeon: Outta Control only lasting until the end of 1998. Therefore by 1999 the area had already lost its shine and was looking suspiciously like the area of forgotten rides, a feeling that was only moderately affected by the mid-season addition of the new Frog Hopper ride.

The following year, in a move that would shape the feel of the area for the next six years, 2000 saw Cred Street become the home of the legendary Barney the Dinosaur. The colourful TV character and his friends took over the area’s theatre and indoor playground, giving the area more purpose once again.

Barney stayed at the park for three seasons until the Tweenies took over the theatre and playground in 2003. Whilst in many ways the park tried to emulate the successes of the Barney years with the Tweenies, these years represent some of the more difficult times for the rapidly ailing area of the park. 2004 saw an old attraction return to the area, with the Gallopers Carousel, once a resident in the Land of Make Believe return to it previous position in the centre of the street.

However 2004 also saw two of the area’s veteran attractions close for the season, with the end of the street being shut off along with the Cred Street Carousel and Vintage Cars, fuelling rumours of a possible regeneration of the area. However, in a clear demonstration of the turbulence in Cred Street at this time, both rides returned to service the following year and for 2005 the area’s line up also gained the Bouncing Bugs, another of the park’s veteran rides, which moved onto the site formerly occupied by Cadbury’s Chocolate House.

2006 was an exciting year for Cred Street, which saw the much rumoured regeneration of the area finally come to fruition. With the departure of The Tweenies, Cred Street also said goodbye to several of of its other long term residents as Toyland Tours, the Vintage Car Ride and Cred Street Carousel all came to the end of their tenure in the park.

The big new attractions for the 2006 season came in the form of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Ride, at the top of Cred Street and the Peugeot 2007 Driving School, nestled within the Towers ruins at the bottom of the Street. All of this, as well as a new look for the Cred Street Playground and Bob the Builder show in the Cred Street Theatre, breathed life back into the area, once again bringing families back in

In its last couple of seasons in the park the main changes to Cred Street were the shows performed in the theatre, with a return to park-produced productions for ATTV in 2007 and The Wonders of Algenon’s Attic in 2008. Its last season also saw the Cred Street Diner refurbished into a Burger King, a move that saw much of its unique theming removed to make way for a typical high street look.

One of the effects of the 2006 additions was to highlight how drab much of the Cred Street theming now was and so for the 2009 season Cred Street became Cloud Cuckoo Land, a land where imagination ruled. Many of Cred Street’s attractions saw major refurbishments to become part of the new land, but with the end of Cred Street, 2008 also saw the final season for Bouncing Bugs, the park’s longest serving children’s ride, along with the Cred Street Playground, which saw the removal of the long serving equipment within to be replaced by something slightly more up-to-date.