John Wardley

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John Wardley is a British award-winning concept designer and developer for theme parks, mainly for rides such as roller coasters.

Wardley started off as a stage manager in the theatre, then later moving 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.

After this he was asked by the Tussauds Group to revitalise and transform the ailing Chessington Zoo in Surrey to become Chessington World of Adventures,which included the design of such park favourites as The Vampire Suspended coaster, constructed by Arrow Dynamics. John designed famous rides such as the globally celebrated Nemesis, Oblivion and Air roller coasters and the Haunted House dark ride at Alton Towers.

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

He is most celebrated for the dark ride he created at Chessington World of Adventures in 1989 "Professor Burp's Bubbleworks" which was closed in 2005 to re-open with a new theme designed by Tussauds Studios and sponsored by Cussons Imperial Leather.
Mr. Wardley has also recently worked with Chris Sawyer and Frontier Developments on RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, a game about amusement park management.

From 2000 to 2007 when the Tussauds Group was owned by Charterhouse, he 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 various theme park developments, a role in which he is currently busily engaged.