Was the Green Belt around Chessington the reason Thorpe Park became a thrill park?

[Paultons Parkway]

Twenty-five years ago, Thorpe Park was a completely different place to today. It was a much more family-oriented park with no inverting rides, only two roller coasters and more in the way of gentle rides and educational experiences. Chessington on the other hand had more in the way of intense rides at the time with Vampire, Rameses Revenge, Rodeo and the newly opened Rattlesnake. The latter was definitely considered to be the most thrilling of the Surrey theme parks throughout the ‘90s.

 

1998 was the year Tussauds Group purchased Thorpe, although I have been wondering whether they always had vision to swap the target audiences of Chessington with Thorpe, and whether the primary reason for this was to do with the fact that Chessington could not expand or build bigger rides due to green belt restrictions. Since then, the only major thrill rides that have been built at Chessington are Samurai, Dragon’s Fury, KOBRA, Croc Drop and the new Jumanji coaster opening this year. Apart from Samurai which opened merely a year after the purchase and was moved to Thorpe Park soon after, none of the above are what you would describe as extreme thrills. What’s notable is that these rides have been able to be built within the park’s green belt restrictions by digging down, whereas it’s unlikely any of the Tussauds era installations at Thorpe would have been approved at Chessington due to their height and footprint.

 

If it wasn’t for the Green Belt, would Chessington have continued to develop itself with more intense rides? Would Thorpe have remained a family oriented park or would it have continued to compete with Chessie like it did in the 90s, assuming Tussauds didn’t take it over?

[Matt N]

From what I ascertain, the green belt at Chessington, or more specifically the planning restriction rigmarole that the park deals with as a result of the green belt restrictions combined with the noise-related grievances of local residents, was pretty much the sole reason for Tussauds even expanding their theme park offering past Chessington in the first place, let alone bringing Thorpe Park into the mix.

 

From what I gather, Tussauds’ original intent was to expand Chessington and turn it into the market-leading theme park in the UK. However, the installation of Vampire in 1990 caused great dismay among local residents due to noise, so as such, the local council vowed that they would never allow a ride on that scale to be built again. When considering the noise complaints combined with the green belt restrictions, it became evident to John Wardley and Tussauds that Chessington could not become the market leader that they had hoped it would be, so they instead looked to build their market leader elsewhere.

 

The original intent here was to build a new ground up theme park, with various site options including Woburn Abbey and Corby Steelworks being considered, but various difficulties with this meant that Tussauds instead decided to gain market dominance within the UK theme park sector by purchasing Alton Towers. They purchased Alton Towers, developed it into a market leading UK theme park, and the rest is history.

 

However, Tussauds still wanted a thrill park in the South, and that’s where Thorpe Park comes in. During the mid-90s, Thorpe Park was Chessington’s key competitor in the family stakes, and they arguably had a tamer offering than Chessington from what I’ve read, but they had far looser planning regulations. With this in mind, Tussauds decided to buy the park because it offered the double whammy of allowing them to operate a thrill park in the South while simultaneously eliminating Chessington’s closest competitor in the family stakes. As such, Tussauds bought the park, added loads of thrill rides, and the rest is history.

 

I apologise for the long ramble, but I thought it would add some context. In terms of how it relates to the question of “was the green belt around Chessington the reason why Thorpe Park became a thrill park?”, I would argue that the timeline of Tussauds’ theme park portfolio in the UK would make the answer to that question an emphatic yes. Or even if it wasn’t the sole reason, it was at very least a significant contributing factor.

 

The reason Thorpe Park became so aggressively thrill-focused from the 2000s onwards was because if they hadn’t, Tussauds would have had the issue of the two London parks (Thorpe and Chessington) stepping on each other’s toes, and history would suggest that two parks owned by the same company in a shared market with a shared target demographic can often end with one eventually cannibalising the other (see examples such as Cedar Point/Geauga Lake for reference). As such, Tussauds needed to differentiate the parks, and with the overbearing planning regulations at Chessington, it made the most sense for Chessington to be the family park and Thorpe to be the thrill park. So with that in mind, I think you could most definitely claim that Chessington’s green belt is a key factor in Thorpe Park being a thrill park today.

 

If those green belt restrictions did not exist at Chessington, I wager that we would most definitely have seen more intense thrill rides at Chessington. The construction of Vampire, a pretty intense thrill ride for the time, in 1990 would suggest that this was Tussauds’ original intent, and had Vampire been less poorly received by the locals, I wager that we would have seen more investment of a similar nature. Whether Thorpe Park would have diversified to become a thrill park to compete with this is another question entirely, but the park’s prior history of having generally been tamer than Chessington would suggest that they may well not have done had Tussauds not gotten involved. If Chessington had targeted thrill seekers more comprehensively, Thorpe may well have stuck to targeting families, in my view.

 

It is an interesting thought to consider, though!

[Paultons Parkway]

Thank you for your thorough and detailed reply. Very informative and fascinating read, particularly with the Vampire noise situation. It’s ironic to believe that Vampire is Chessington’s most loved ride, yet hated by the locals due to its noise. Makes me wonder if a similar coaster was planned today, whether it would be located at Thorpe rather than Chessie. Tbf Thorpe could probably do with a moderate thrill coaster without any inversions to make it more family-friendly. Even thrill parks should have a selection of good family rides that appeal to the younger guests as well as thrillseekers.