Chessington is my home park. I’ve been
visiting since 1994 yearly at the very least and I have a soft spot for the
place. It’s one of the UK’s major parks, and yet around the world not a lot is
known about it. For a quick overview, this park started as a zoo and was
developed by the Tussauds Group and John Wardley in the late 80’s with nice
theming, a suspended Arrow, mine train, dark ride and some other bits and bobs. The Chessington I grew up with was the
only proper theme park in the south east, Legoland never appealed to me as a
kid because it’s almost entirely interactives as opposed to rides. Chessington
had small rides, big rides, great theming, landscaping and animals. In ways, a very small and distinctly
British version of Busch Gardens.