Zappomatic Posted September 26, 2015 Report Share Posted September 26, 2015 In a way we've gone full circle by having an electronic display over the entrance! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted September 26, 2015 Report Share Posted September 26, 2015 Was this long enough ago that I can jest about the Phantom of Liam White's ear haunting Thorpe without being a monster? Also: Wow progress. Behind the 2 ticket booths you can see that canopy building is the same structure that's there now, but roofed and with the 3 turrets added. The electronic display is funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted September 26, 2015 Report Share Posted September 26, 2015 We know by now it's not exactly Thorpe's style to demolish things and rebuild from scratch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Han30 Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Ahhh Thunder River.....where you actually got wet! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morgan.B Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Wait... You could get wet on what is now Rumba? Oh yeah, Tussauds where running the place [emoji14] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pognoi Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Thunder river was before tussauds. Merry-go-girl 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 There are lots of water effects on Rumba that have been removed fairly recently or that just don't work. There was the waterfall and leaking pipes just before you go into the tunnel, the waterfall on the side of the trough on the straight section heading towards the tunnel, water sprayers in the tunnel (not the waterfall, there used to be small sprayers which got you as you went through), three water jets just before the lifthill and I'm sure the shower actually used to work! Rumba is so dull these days, literally nothing happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merry-go-girl Posted October 1, 2015 Report Share Posted October 1, 2015 Thunder River was one of those, I'm not going on that today I washed my hair this morning, rides. Rumba is a splish and splash. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshC. Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 I've always thought that the roads were designed to be theming, since the old areas ('Central Park' was one, the names of others escape me) leant themselves to having 'roads'. Could of course be wildly wrong and it might have been due to a more boring / practical reason, but that's the logical explanation I've always thought of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted November 9, 2015 Report Share Posted November 9, 2015 Yeh I think you're right, they are supposed to be roads with pavements as part of the park's original design. Not to suit any particular theme as such, it's just another remnant of the rather plain or dated way the park was originally planned/built. This was well before the idea that even the paths and buildings are part of a total experience came about properly in the UK, at a time when most UK parks were very geometrically planned and quaint looking. I'm thinking mostly of the old 80s 'central' area which kind of 80% still exists under the surface. Of course they all function as real roads most the time when visitors aren't on park. Phill Pritchard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharlieN Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 Sorry, I was born 20 years after the 80's so I don't know where the old Central Park area was. Can anyone tell me which current area used to be known as Central Park? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 That's interesting about the roads, I always thought they were for vehicle access but that made no sense as they can drive across the paths where there is no road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 Sorry, I was born 20 years after the 80's so I don't know where the old Central Park area was. Can anyone tell me which current area used to be known as Central Park? Everything from Tidal Wave to Rumba Rapids basically... Whilst it fits thematically into Amity Cove, it's always been a tad questionable around Calypso, though it doesn't really matter... I don't get the book reference thing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted November 10, 2015 Report Share Posted November 10, 2015 I was born 15 years after the 80s so not totally clued up, but doing some digging the blocks of buildings in the centre of the park was the imaginatively named 'central' area. It's actually more interesting than you think as all of those buildings once housed a lot of different things, and the facades once very eclectically decorated and diverse. Can anyone shed some more light on these old buildings...? KFC/arcade ("Amity Hotel") building was Space Station Zero & Carousel Kingdom once upon a time. There was also a fountain square out the back, where the path up behind Detonator is today, which is now gone. The building was about twice the length, going right across over the Detonator area and ending near the Nemesis Inferno entrance. This second half of the building housed Wicked Witches Haunt, it's kind of difficult to picture the exact footprint compared to today, unless you look at old aerial photos from before the 2000 fire. Then on the opposite side of the 'road' was the more European styled buildings, now the Pizza Hut, Burger King, toilets and 4D cinema. These were originally a theatre (now Angry Birds), the Thorpe Radio station, a set of restaurants and I'm not sure what's on the upper level. Obviously the facades on this building have been drastically altered from the old Central design, becoming 'calypso', 'pirates', 'Angry Birds' and 'Amity Cove' at one time or another. Most the exterior detail is gone, painted over multiple times and just all rather difficult to work out how it used to be. Phill Pritchard 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 Who remembers this music? https://youtu.be/8EGQQxAgrdE The memories! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted November 23, 2015 Report Share Posted November 23, 2015 It still plays that theme to date. Just that track was played more widely along with the other one in the area back in the day. It also played on the beach for a couple of seasons before the pop music. Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeksy Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 Am I going mad, but sure until a few years ago, there was an iron age hut on the western side of the park - almost behind the VIP hospitality tent. Looking at Google earth its long gone, possibly as part of Swarm construction. Used to be able to see it from Tidal Wave before Stealth boxed it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted December 10, 2015 Report Share Posted December 10, 2015 It certainly existed, I thought it was listed and therefore couldn't be removed? If they had touched it we'd surely have seen planning? I think it's probably still there, but where its surroundings have changed so much we're not looking in the right place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeksy Posted December 11, 2015 Report Share Posted December 11, 2015 Possibly, certainly can't see it on Google earth - if you go back in time on it, you can see it. Having said that, from previous conversations there is nothing listed at Thorpe. I'd assumed it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeksy Posted December 19, 2016 Report Share Posted December 19, 2016 Anyone with Spotify... Bizarrely enough the Thorpe Park Rangers Show songs are on there! Before my time but entertaining none the less! MattyMoo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted December 30, 2016 Report Share Posted December 30, 2016 Some nice footage of Thorpe park from 1998. No sound. Josh3103 and Cian 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted December 30, 2016 Report Share Posted December 30, 2016 God it's bad that I remember pretty much most of those attractions existing... #soold Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveJ Posted December 30, 2016 Report Share Posted December 30, 2016 Thorpe Park's lovely days were really something special. That's not the greatest footage of it but nice to see a bit more of it in video. I just started visiting at the end of that sort of era and it's pretty shocking to look back now and see the difference, and the things that I'd almost forgotten Josh3103 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh3103 Posted February 25, 2017 Report Share Posted February 25, 2017 Thorpe Park in 1999 Theme Park Joseph 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattgwise Posted June 11, 2017 Report Share Posted June 11, 2017 Two pieces of nostalgia here, the park in the 90s, and a kids tv show I grew up with Chaz 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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