Thorpe Park Resort
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| Slogan | An Island Like No Other |
|---|---|
| Location | Surrey, England, UK |
| Coordinates | 51°24′17″N 0°30′47″W / 51.40472°N 0.51306°WCoordinates: 51°24′17″N 0°30′47″W / 51.40472°N 0.51306°W |
| Owner | Merlin Entertainment |
| Operated by | Merlin Entertainment |
| General Manager | Dominic Jones (Divisional Director) |
| Opened | 24 May 1979 |
| Operating season | Mid March - Early November |
| Visitors per annum |
 1.80 million (2016) |
| Area | 200 ha (2.0 km2; 490 acres) |
| Rides | |
| Total | 27 |
| Roller coasters | 7 |
| Water rides | 5 |
| Website | ThorpePark.com |
| Status |
Theme Park Open Hotel Open |
Thorpe Park, styled THORPE PARK Resort, is a theme park with a hotel in between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames, located within the area of Surrey, England, UK. It is operated and owned by Merlin Entertainments. After demolition of the Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s, the site became a gravel pit.
Thorpe Park was built in the 1970s on the gravel pit which was partially flooded, creating a water-based theme for the park. This essentially allows guests to view the park as an island, which is where the park's current "island like no other" slogan originates from. It was officially opened to the public by the late Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1979.
Major attractions include Tidal Wave, Colossus, Nemesis Inferno, Stealth, Saw – The Ride, The Swarm, and Derren Brown's Ghost Train.
The demolition of the Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s saw the site transform into a gravel pit, originally owned by Ready Mixed Concrete Limited. In the late 1970s they decided to flood part of the site and create an educational theme park. The park opened as a small attraction, building slowly up to RMCs first large installation of "X:\No Way Out" in 1996. In 1998, The Tussauds Group bought the park (they also owned the nearby Chessington World of Adventures). From the outset the park started opening key attractions such as Tidal Wave in 2000, Colossus in 2002, Nemesis Inferno in 2003 and Stealth in 2006.
In 2007, Merlin Entertainments (a subsidiary of Blackstone Investment Group) bought the Tussauds Group; the attraction target market was moved towards a teenage audience with large investment in the form of rides such as Saw: The Ride and The Swarm. This was to prevent it competing with Legoland Windsor, and Chessington World of Adventures Resort, both within close proximity of Thorpe Park; Legoland was to cater for children and Chessington World of Adventures Resort was to have a variety of attractions.
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