John Wardley

John Wardley (born 6 June 1950) is a British award-winning concept designer and developer for theme parks; an innovator of special effects, dark rides and roller coasters in the UK attraction industry.

Career

Wardley started his career as a stage manager at Windsor's Theatre Royal, then moved on to the film industry creating special effects. This included effect designs for five of the James Bond movies. He was later hired by the Tussauds Group due to his experience in designing animated figures and rides for amusement parks. His first project was the creation of the animated show "60 Glorious Years" for Tussauds Royalty and Empire exhibition at Windsor. This led him to meet Elizabeth II.

After this he was asked by the Tussauds Group to transform the failing Chessington Zoo in London to become a theme park. Now called Chessington World of Adventures, Wardley's work included the Vampire Suspended coaster, constructed by Arrow Dynamics and The 5th Dimension dark ride. In 1990 he commissioned the world-renowned Prof. Burp's Bubble Works dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures, designing the concept and producing the ride with the Sparks Group. For Tussauds, John went on to produce famous attractions such as Nemesis, Oblivion and Air roller coasters and The Haunted House at Alton Towers. He also produced several of the developments at Thorpe Park from its acquisition by Tussauds in 1998.

One of his other accomplishments was that he, along with the late businessman Geoffrey Thompson, created a magic show called Mystique at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The show ran successfully for nearly 20 years.

John Wardley had various roles in the production of attractions for Tussauds and Merlin, since 1982.

Wardley also worked with Chris Sawyer and Frontier Developments for RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, a game about amusement park management. His name is also a secret cheat code in the game - when visitor's title is named after him all height restrictions are removed, alluding to the severe height restrictions that his most well-known work at Alton Towers was required to comply with.

From 2000 to 2007, when the Tussauds Group was owned by Charterhouse and DIC, Wardley went into semi-retirement. However, in May 2007 Merlin Entertainments took over the company and he was asked to become actively involved in the group's theme park developments. He was employed as a technical design consultant for rollercoaster projects, such as SAW - The Ride at Thorpe Park, TH13TEEN at Alton Towers, Raptor at Gardaland, The Swarm at Thorpe Park and The Smiler at Alton Towers.

On 22 January 2013 John announced his retirement.^[1] In April 2013 he published an autobiography entitled Creating My Own Nemesis. Despite retirement, he has been occasionally asked back to consult on future ride projects for Merlin.

Video games

• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 - consultation

Publishing history

• Creating My Own Nemesis (April 2013) - author

Rides designed by John Wardley

Further reading

• Interview with John Wardley ahead of his retirement
• Interview with John Wardley in Park World magazine
• Article by John Wardley in First Drop magazine

References

External links

• John Wardley's official site
• John Wardley's IMDB page

Chessington World of Adventures
Roller Coasters	Vampire  (1990) Rattlesnake  (1998) Dragon's Fury  (2004) Scorpion Express  (2014)
Other rides	Dragon Falls  (1987) Black Buccaneer  (1988) Tiny Truckers  (1993) Rameses Revenge  (1995) Tomb Blaster  (2002) Hocus Pocus Hall  (2003) Peeking Heights  (2005) KOBRA  (2010) Flying Jumbos  (2013) Zufari: Ride into Africa!  (2013)
Past rides	Runaway Train  (1987-2012) The 5th Dimension  (1987-1993) Rodeo  (1989-2004) Bubbleworks  (1990-2016) Terror Tomb  (1994-2001) Samurai  (1999-2003) Beanoland  (2000-2009) Madagascar Live! Prepare to Party  (2012-2014) Safari Skyway  (1986-2015)
Theme Park Areas	Market Square Mexicana Pirates' Cove Mystic East Transylvania Forbidden Kingdom Land of the Dragons Wild Asia Africa ZUFARI
See Also	Chessington Zoo Merlin Entertainments John Wardley (designer) List of amusement parks in the United Kingdom
Category Commons chessington.com

Alton Towers
Roller coasters	Runaway Mine Train (1992) Nemesis (1994) Oblivion (1998) Galactica (2002-2015 as Air) (2016) Spinball Whizzer (2004) Rita (2005) TH13TEEN (2010) The Smiler (2013) Octonauts Rollercoaster Adventure (2015)
Other rides	The Blade as Pirate Ship (1980) Enterprise (1984) Congo River Rapids (1986) Hex – The Legend of the Towers (2000) Duel - The Haunted House Strikes Back! (2003) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Ride (2006) Driving School (2006) Marauder's Mayhem (2008) Battle Galleons (2008) Twirling Toadstool (2009) Nemesis: Sub-Terra (2012) The Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs - 4-D Experience (2012)
Past rides	Doom & Sons (1981–1992) Around The World In Eighty Days (1981–1993) Thunder Looper (1990–1996) The Beast (1988–1997) Nickelodeon: Outta Control (1997–1998) Boneshaker (1995–2003) The Black Hole (1984–2005) Dynamo (1993–2005) Toyland Tours (1994–2005) Corkscrew (1980–2008) Beastie (1983–2010) Submission (2001–2013) The Flume (1981-2015) Ripsaw (1997–2015)
Theme park areas	Towers Street Katanga Canyon Gloomy Wood Forbidden Valley Adventure Land X-Sector Mutiny Bay Cloud Cuckoo Land Dark Forest CBeebies Land The Towers & Gardens
See also	Alton Towers Waterpark Merlin Entertainments John Wardley History of Alton Towers The Grand Knockout Tournament