John Wardley

John Wardley
Born	(1956-06-06) 6 June 1956
Nationality	British citizen
Occupation	Attraction designer
Known for	The Smiler, Air, Nemesis, Oblivion, Vampire, Dragon Khan, Professor Burp's Bubble Works, The Haunted House

John Wardley (born 6 June 1950) is a British award-winning concept designer and developer for theme parks (such as Alton Towers Resort); an innovator of dark rides and roller coasters particularly in the UK attraction industry.

Career

Early years

Wardley started off as a stage manager at Windsor's Theatre Royal then moved on to the film industry, including creating the special effects 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 "50 Glorious Years" for Tussauds "Royalty and Empire Exhibition" at Windsor.

Later years

File:Thorpe Saw3.jpg

Saw - The Ride showing a key drop that Wardley consulted on

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 design of such park favourites as the Vampire Suspended coaster, constructed by Arrow Dynamics, and The Fifth Dimension dark ride. John designed famous attractions such as the globally celebrated Nemesis, Oblivion and Air roller coasters and The Haunted House at Alton Towers. As well as the world-renowned Professor Burp's Bubbleworks dark ride at Chessington World of Adventures.

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.

He is well known for a dark ride he designed in partnership with Spark's Creative Services for Chessington World of Adventures, which opened in 1990. Professor Burp's Bubbleworks took visitors on a tour of a fizzy pop factory set in Transylvania. Wardley stated that they treated the ride as if it was a comic book and that it was his favorite ride to create. Bubbleworks was closed at the end of 2005 and rethemed.

File:The Smiler on opening day.jpg

The Smiler on its opening day

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.

Retirement

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 once again in the group's theme parks. His new role is ride consultant - this means he has significant input in the decisions of new developments but no longer designs his own rides. Some of his projects designed in this time include SAW - The Ride at Thorpe Park and TH13TEEN at Alton Towers, as well as creating effects for the "Carnival of Screams" Scarefest attraction. More recent projects with Merlin have included Raptor at Gardaland, The Swarm at Thorpe Park, The Smiler at Alton Towers and Flug der Dämonen at Heide Park

On 22 January 2013 John announced his retirement, meaning Flug der Dämonen would be his last attraction. In April 2013 John's autobiography (titled "Creating My Own Nemesis") was published.

Despite this, there is speculation that John Wardley may be working with Alton Towers on a new ride. This increased with the recent formal screening option submitted for at Alton Towers for a ride with "timber truss construction" as John has said he believes a wooden roller coaster should be built at Alton Towers.

Video games

• RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 - design, concepts

Publishing history

• Creating My Own Nemesis (April 2013) - author

Rides designed by John Wardley

See also: Category:Rides designed by John Wardley

Significant rides designed by John Wardley

Yr	Ride name	Role	Description
1987	Dragon Falls	Ride Designer	Log flume
1987	Runaway Train	Ride Designer	Roller coaster (later to become Scorpion Express)
1987	The 5th Dimension	Transit system	Dark Ride
1990	Professor Burp's Bubbleworks	Concept and transit system	Dark boat ride (later to become Bubbleworks)
1990	Vampire	Concept and layout	Roller coaster
1992	Runaway Mine Train	Ride Designer	Roller coaster
1992	Haunted House	Concept and transit system	Dark ride (later to become Duel)
1994	Nemesis	Concept and layout	Roller coaster
1995	Dragon Khan	Layout Designer	Roller coaster
1998	Oblivion	Concept	Roller coaster
1998	Rattlesnake	Concept	Rollercoaster
2000	Hex – The Legend of the Towers	Concept	Dark ride
2002	Air	Ride format and layout	Roller coaster
2002	Colossus	Reprofiling of a previous layout	Roller coaster
2004	Sonic Spinball	Layout Designer	Roller coaster
2009	SAW - The Ride	Consultation	Roller coaster
2010	TH13TEEN	Consultation	Roller coaster
2011	Raptor	Consultation	Roller coaster
2012	The Swarm	Consultation	Roller coaster
2013	The Smiler	Consultation	Roller coaster
2014	Flug der Dämonen	Layout Designer	Roller coaster

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

External links

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