France has offered many great things to Britain over the years, good bread, top notch plonk, the beret and many many ladies with lovely accents. In a roundabout way it is fair to say that France is, at least in part, also responsible for the evolution of the UK theme park.
In the dark days of the 1980s – early 1990s the choice of theme parks in Britain was relatively limited. School children dreamed of the day their parents saved enough money to finance a depressingly expensive family trip to Florida, so they could ride the “proper” American rollercoasters. This is not to say thrill rides did not exist in dear old Blighty, we had a few. They were just not up to the standard of the white knuckle, spare set of pants scary offerings from across the pond. This all changed in 1992 when the ever pervasive Disney corporation opened an all new theme park in Paris, now known as Disneyland Resort Paris, then called Euro Disney Resort.
With the presence of a full blown, all singing all dancing theme resort only a short trip across the channel away, UK theme park owners were forced to sit up and take notice. The competition of a well established and publicly trusted franchise was the proverbial kick up the backside park owners needed. Massive improvements began to be made to the likes of Chessington World of Adventures, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park and Drayton Manor.
Drayton Manor was the first park to respond to the threat. In 1994, the park opened Shockwave, a stand-up rollercoaster which reaches speeds of 53 mph and incorporates an 80 ft drop, two corkscrews, a zero G roll, a 120 ft hill lift and delivers up to 4 G’s. These were great times, the 80s were not long over, perms were finally out of fashion, Zig and Zag were still on the Big Breakfast and now Britain had the kind of thrill rides you previously only found overseas . In 1995 Chessington World of Adventures launched Rameses Revenge, a Top Spin ride impressive enough to make it the park’s main advertising focus for the year, and for me to pester my parents non-stop for a good 8 months until they took me. On a school day. I win! . In 1996, Thorpe Park opened X:/ No Way Out, the worlds first in the dark, backwards rollercoaster, it is probably still the only ride in the world to incorporate a forward slash in the name as well.
These initial thrill rides were only the beginning of what amounts to a revolution in the British theme park industry. A wonderful revolution, that allowed the brave to test their metal against very clever pieces of engineering, and the less brave to practice the vitally important life-skills of taking pictures of terrified friends & relatives and holding handbags.
Over the next few years more and more white-knuckle rides rivalling those in America began to spring up in parks across the UK, designs became more elaborate and attendance to the parks improved. Great success.
The evolution of British theme parks did not end with the rapid development of thrill rides in the 1990s. Drawing inspiration from the American style theme park resorts but still keeping a close eye on Disneyland Paris, British theme parks began to specialise and blossom into full blown resorts. Alton Towers led the way, opening the Alton Towers hotel in 1996. This was followed by the opening of a water park, large crazy golf course and a second hotel. Firmly cementing Alton Towers’ position as one of the UK’s first and leading family theme park resorts.
The parks who were not building stunning, themed hotels were busy specialising. While Alton Towers was putting the finishing touches on its amazing first hotel LEGOLAND® Windsor opened its doors to the public. LEGOLAND shunned the white knuckle rides that other parks focussed heavily on and set itself up as a theme park designed for the under 12s. By specialising in the younger market, while other parks were focussing on building bigger and better rollercoasters, LEGOLAND carved itself a comfortable niche and enjoyed astounding success, attracting 1.4 million visitors in its first season. Thorpe park also began specialisation: Although it does contain a number of child-friendly rides, the park became one of the UK’s leading thrill parks gaining several records. Colossus was the world’s first rollercoaster to feature ten inversions, Stealth was the fastest rollercoaster in Europe until 2007, Loggers Leap is the tallest log flume in the UK and Tidal Wave was the tallest water ride in Europe until 2002.
Chessington World of Adventures improved its already impressive zoo and added a sea-life centre creating a park that is perfect for families, thrill seekers and amateur Attenboroughs. It would seem the result of the Parisian threat of Disneyland drove the British theme parks into stronger competition than ever before, which in turn led to each park creating a unique niche and offering the British public an unprecedented variety, never before seen. LEGOLAND created a safe, familiar environment for young families, Thorpe Park became a haven for adrenaline junkies without forgetting the family-friendly roots of the theme park. Alton Towers offered a genuine alternative to Disneyland Paris, closer, cheaper and without the slightly scary people in giant costumes. Chessington World of Adventures expanded on its already impressive zoological side, and created a family orientated hybrid of theme park and zoo, somewhere where families with teenagers or toddlers could be entertained with ease. All in all it must be said that the evolution of the British theme park is quite possibly the best thing to happen to this country since the the NHS, no wait…..since Home and Away was cancelled.