Park People Q Lines John Wardley
This season, Alton Towers is celebrating its 30th anniversary as an
amusement park. Now one of the UK’s leading
destination resorts, it is home to a world-class selection of rides and attractions including Nemesis, Air and Oblivion. The ride that kick- started it all, however, was a Vekoma Corkscrew installed in 1980, which transformed the fortunes of the 500-acre (2 sq km) stately home and gardens in Staffordshire. This year a new attraction, TH13TEEN by Intamin, replaced the Corkscrew, opening after an intense promotional campaign and speculation from fans. Park World talks to John
Wardley, consultant to Merlin Entertainments and the
“ideas man” behind many of Alton Towers’ most famous attractions
roughly in the same area. That’s where Nemesis came along [the UK’s first B&M coaster].
Nemesis provided another major turning point for the park, would you agree? Oh definitely. The one person that can be credited with the success of that ride other than myself is Nick Varney, who was marketing director of Alton Towers at the time. The two of us worked together and created the Nemesis concept and now Nick Varney is chief executive of the world’s second biggest attractions operator. Back then though that ride was the biggest thing in the amusement industry in the UK, and were both heavily involved with it.
Was it a difficult decision to remove the Corkscrew?
John on site at Alton Towers
How did you first become involved with Alton Towers?
I was involved with the purchase of the park by Tussauds back in 1990. We had made a very successful development at Chessington Zoo, turning it into Chessington World of Adventures. Pearson, who owned Madame Tussauds, wanted to be the brand leader, but we had tremendous trouble with planning permission; wherever there was nice landscape we could never get planning consent. So Ray Barrett, Tussauds’ executive director, said we were going to have to acquire an existing operation, and we acquired Alton Towers from John Broome.
The Corkscrew monument outside Alton Towers
20
What were some of the first steps you made when Tussauds took over the park? I came up with a masterplan that made it look as though we had done a mega hit on the park, but without involving a huge amount of capital. The rapids ride was sadly underexposed; it was hidden away behind a fence. My philosophy is that you should allow people to enjoy the ride even if they have not got the guts or the will to ride it. I came up with the principle to turn the rapids inside out, allow people into the centre of the ride, we created a themed area around the rapids and added a Mack runaway train. Next came the dark ride, the Haunted House [now Duel], and then the Thunder Looper [by Schwarzkopf]. The Thunder Looper was only on temporary planning consent and that was due to expire so we needed to replace it with something
AUGUST 2010
When the Corkscrew was first put in by John Broome, it was seen as the ultimate terror machine, a real challenge to ride. It no longer was that. Research indicated that although there was a lot of nostalgic value to the old Corkscrew, it was not up there with the top rides any longer. It was still in excellent condition, but it was time for the ride to go into retirement. I can tell you, however, that Alton Towers do respect its iconic value and have erected a monument to the ride at the park’s entrance.
Where did the concept for TH13TEEN come from?
Planners had indicated they would prefer us to use the old Corkscrew site for the new coaster, but that they might also be open to us going into the woodland around the Corkscrew. That implied some sort of theme involving the woodland as there was absolutely no question of us felling any trees and we had to take the ride through the woods. The theme is quite dark, but basically it’s that the woodland has taken over the
Corkscrew
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