Last Update to this page: January 7, 2012 (page first posted) The World Showcase's United Kingdom Pavilion is like a tiny painting of Arthur Treacher in a gilded frame, flanked by large statues of Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen on one side and a row of Moulin Rouge showgirls on the other. What's there in that frame is perfectly fine, especially if you like fish and chips, but there's hardly enough going on to make it stand out for anything ahead of its basic smallness. In spite of the pavilion's good looks it invited potential confusion for WDW visitors already familiar with the Magic Kingdom, as they had been led to believe that a Tudor facade should wrap around a ride involving ghosts or be called Toad Hall, not be used to hide restrooms. The absence of a bona fide attraction isn't the key issue, however, hounding the UK. Germany and Japan are similar in that regard, still they have, at least, an enveloping Biergarten and/or elevational dynamics which allowed diversionary investments of time "getting lost" within or even just looking up at something tall. But the UK's representation at EC has always been a markedly slight congregation of pretty gardens and handsome two-story buildings. Viewed across the World Showcase lagoon, the pavilion gets a little lost without a focal point like Italy's Campanile tower or Mexico's pyramid. And while the location is certainly good for fifteen minutes of window shopping or an hour's worth of dining, it has always fallen squarely to the pavilion's stellar live entertainment to spark inspired moments.



WED knew this, of course, and the company never tried to make the pavilion out as anything more than what it was i.e., it's where the pub and street performers are. The space behind it to the west was marked on early EPCOT Center blueprints as "future expansion" with a dotted outline indicating that there was room for a ride or show. One original attraction concept was referenced in this excerpt from a July 1975 edition of Eyes and Ears:



In this artist's rendering of Great Britain's pavilion, guests would board London double-decker busses which would be departing Piccadilly Circus every few minutes along cobblestone streets ... bound for castles, cottages and other great traditions of England.



The company's 1978 annual report predicted a more modest outcome, with a pub, themed shops, the "distinct beaux arts facade of Selfridges Department Store" and a 200-seat theater with a British travelogue film.



Those ride and film ideas never saw further promotional mention as EPCOT Center moved forward. Once double-decker busses were implemented as a means for getting guests around World Showcase itself, it wasn't likely WED would build an attraction around those vehicles. The truth is that most people would have been happy to merely walk through a scaled-down replica of Stonehenge in the field out back (think of the photos!) But for whatever reasons*, that field never saw anything possessed of intrigue. And for all the trips my family and I made to EPCOT Center since 1982, and having lived just a few miles away since then, I've spent less time at the UK pavilion than at the real Tower of London. The best reason for doing this page before others, then, was to create a spot for proof of something that actually MIGHT have gone into that space behind the UK street scene. It's something I didn't know about until December 2011, when a trip to Theme Park Connection's grand opening celebration (free hot dogs AND old WDW paper? Thanks Scott and Amanda!) yielded three pages of concept renderings that - minus dates and contextual backup - give a concise look at a neat EPCOT Center concept that went nowhere.



* My working theory as to why the UK pavilion was minimal is that, concurrent with EPCOT Center's construction (1979-1982), British businessman Lewis Cartier was also developing a United Kingdom-themed park in Kissimmee called Little England. Cartier actually got a small number of buildings put together in the middle of a field ... about as many as you see in Epcot's UK pavilion ... but the project hit dire financial straits and never opened. It would make sense that WED would wait to see what Little England became before expanding the UK pavilion and, presumably, doing something more impressive than whatever Cartier did a few miles down the road. By the way, my working theories are usually wrong.



