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Thorpe Park
Thorpe Park Resort, commonly known as Thorpe Park, is an amusement park located in the village of Thorpe between the towns of Chertsey and Staines-upon-Thames in Surrey, England, southwest of Central London. It is operated by Merlin Entertainments and includes rides, themed cabins, live events and '' Stealth'', the United Kingdom's fastest rollercoaster. In 2019 Thorpe park was the UK's third most visited theme park (1.9 million visitors), behind Alton Towers and Legoland Windsor. However, in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the park only had a 125-day operation season, along with limited capacity, leading to massively reduced visitor numbers. Despite this, Thorpe Park was the second most attended theme park in the UK in 2020, behind Alton Towers. After demolition of the Thorpe Park Estate in the 1930s, the site became a gravel pit managed by Ready Mix Concrete (RMC). When the pits were expended, RMC regenerated the site for leisure, opening Thorpe Park as an outdoor ac ...
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The Swarm (roller Coaster)
The Swarm is a steel roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in the United Kingdom. The Swarm was the world's second Wing Coaster model designed by Swiss roller coaster manufacturer Bolliger & Mabillard and the only one located in the United Kingdom. Construction commenced in May 2011, and the coaster opened on 15 March 2012. From 2013 until 2015, the last two rows of each train faced backwards, while the first five rows faced forward. This was restored to the original for safety reasons in 2016, with all riders facing forward once again. The ride stands tall and features five inversions and a heavily-banked left turn. Riders experience speeds of up to and 4.5 times the force of gravity. A marketing campaign for the ride dubbed ''LC12 - The End is Coming'' began eleven months before The Swarm opened to the public. It has generally been well-received, ranking highly amongst other roller coasters of its type. History Planning and announcement In 2010, planning for ''The Swarm ...
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Saw – The Ride
Saw – The Ride is a steel roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in Surrey, England. Manufactured by Gerstlauer, the Euro-Fighter model opened to the public as the steepest freefall roller coaster in the world on 14 March 2009, with a drop angle of 100 degrees. It is themed to the ''Saw'' film franchise, featuring an enclosed dark section and queue theming which makes numerous references to the film series. History Thorpe Park announced plans for a new roller coaster on 14 October 2008. Thorpe Park created a dedicated website for the new ride, hyperbolically claiming it would be "the scariest ride in the world." The official press release detailing the park's fourth major roller coaster confirmed a development partnership with Lionsgate and Twisted Pictures, and it claimed Saw would feature "the steepest freefall drop in the world." The press release also revealed that "the world's first ever horror movie-themed rollercoaster" would be marketed under the slogan "Face your Fears ...
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Chertsey
Chertsey is a town in the Borough of Runnymede, Surrey, England, south-west of central London. It grew up round Chertsey Abbey, founded in 666 CE, and gained a market charter from Henry I. A bridge across the River Thames first appeared in the early 15th century. The River Bourne through the town meets the Thames at Weybridge. The Anglican church has a medieval tower and chancel roof. The 18th-century listed buildings include the current stone Chertsey Bridge and Botleys Mansion. A curfew bell, rung at 8 pm on weekdays from Michaelmas to Lady Day ties with the romantic local legend of Blanche Heriot, marked by a statue of her and the bell at Chertsey Bridge. Green areas include the Thames Path National Trail, Chertsey Meads and a round knoll (St Ann's Hill) with remains of a prehistoric hill fort known as Eldebury Hill. Pyrcroft House dates from the 18th century and Tara from the late 20th. Train services are run between Chertsey railway station and London Waterloo by S ...
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International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation
The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) is the world governing body for all towed water sports. Founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1946, it is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole authority governing all towed water sports and has 91 affiliated member federations worldwide. The IWWF is also an affiliate member of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) and is one of the seven founding sports of the World Games. The IWWF’s competitive and recreational towed water sports divisions include the following: Tournament (3-Event Waterskiing), Wakeboard, Barefoot, Show Skiing, Cable Wakeboard, Cableski, Ski Racing Ski racing may refer to: ;Winter Olympic sports: * Alpine skiing * Part of the biathlon ** Military patrol, the biathlon's predecessor sport * Cross-country skiing (sport) * Some of the freestyle skiing events, such as: ** Mogul skiing, where s ..., and Disabled Skiing. Functions of the IWWF: * ...
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Nick Leslau
Nick Leslau, born , is an English commercial property investor, with an estimated fortune in the ''Sunday Times'' Rich List of £200 million. Leslau is Chairman and Chief Executive of Prestbury Investment Holdings Limited, and Chairman of Prestbury Investments LLP. He is a 30 percent shareholder in Prestbury's AIM listed Secure Income REIT, which owns tourist attraction venues such as Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle, and Alton Towers on a long-term lease to Merlin Entertainments. Secure Income REIT also owns 20 private hospitals and 55 Travelodge hotels in the UK. Early life and education The son of a jeweller and part-time art historian, his parents divorced when he was nine. His mother subsequently worked full-time so that Leslau could be educated at a preparatory school in Hampstead, and at Mill Hill School. Leslau left the University of Warwick where he was studying German, to study quantity surveying. Career After meeting Sam Rosen, Leslau joined the ground rent ...
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Blackstone Group
Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge fund solutions, insurance solutions, secondaries and growth equity. As of Q3 2022, the company's total assets under management were approximately US$951 billion, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally. Blackstone was founded in 1985 as a mergers and acquisitions firm by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman, who had previously worked together at Lehman Brothers. History Founding and early history Blackstone was founded in 1985 by Peter G. Peterson and Stephen A. Schwarzman with $400,000 in seed capital. The founders named their firm "Blackstone," using a cryptogram derived from the names of th ...
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The Tussauds Group
The Tussauds Group was an entertainment company which is now a part of Merlin Entertainments. It was based in Poole, Dorset from where it managed a portfolio of brands and over 50 attractions that included the Madame Tussauds waxworks, Legoland Theme Parks, Legoland Discovery Centres, Sea Life Centres, PortAventura Park in Spain, Gardaland in Italy, Heide Park Resort in Germany, The Dungeons, The London Eye, The Blackpool Tower attractions, The Orlando Eye, Warwick Castle, Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, and Chessington World of Adventures. Merlin Entertainments bought the company in 2007, thus becoming the world's second largest leisure group after Disney. History The 1700s The physician, Philippe Curtius began to create organs and biological structures from wax. After creating organs, Curtius went on to recreate notable people in society out of the medium too. Curtius put these models on display to the public in Berne, Switzerland where they caught the attention of the ...
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Rollercoaster
A roller coaster, or rollercoaster, is a type of amusement ride that employs a form of elevated railroad track designed with tight turns, steep slopes, and sometimes inversions. Passengers ride along the track in open cars, and the rides are often found in amusement parks and theme parks around the world. LaMarcus Adna Thompson obtained one of the first known patents for a roller coaster design in 1885, related to the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. The track in a coaster design does not necessarily have to be a complete circuit, as shuttle roller coasters demonstrate. Most roller coasters have multiple cars in which passengers sit and are restrained. Two or more cars hooked together are called a train. Some roller coasters, notably Wild Mouse roller coasters, run with single cars. History The Russian mountain and the Aerial Promenades The oldest roller coasters are believed to have originated from the so-called " Russian Mountains", spec ...
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Space Station Zero
The ''Flying Fish'' is a powered steel roller coaster located at Thorpe Park in Surrey. The ride was known as ''Space Station Zero'' upon opening in 1984, until being moved outdoors in 1990. It was removed in 2005 to make way for ''Stealth'', but reinstalled in a different location two years later. History ''Space Station Zero'' opened in 1984 at Thorpe Park in England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ... and was the park's first roller coaster, themed as a flight through outer space. After boarding, the train travelled around a bend through a tunnel of flashing lights. The ride did two laps of the track, the first in the dark and the second lit by glitter balls to appear as stars. The attraction closed in 1989 before being moved outside and renamed ''The Flyi ...
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The Benny Hill Show
''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV (from 1969) between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody and double entendre (which could be described as a filmatographic version of British saucy seaside postcard humour). At its peak ''The Benny Hill Show'' was among the most-watched programmes in the UK with the audience reaching more than 21 million viewers in 1971. In 1972, Hill received a BAFTA Television Award for Best Writer, and he was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance. In the late 1970s, the Thames Television version of the show gained a following in the United States and would run in syndication until 1991. In 1980 and 1981, it received Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Variety. In 1984 Hill received a Rose d'Or. Thames cancelled production of the show in 1989 due to declining ratings and large p ...
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Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9–22. They also voyaged as far as the Mediterranean, North Africa, Volga Bulgaria, the Middle East, and North America. In some of the countries they raided and settled in, this period is popularly known as the Viking Age, and the term "Viking" also commonly includes the inhabitants of the Scandinavian homelands as a collective whole. The Vikings had a profound impact on the early medieval history of Scandinavia, the British Isles, France, Estonia, and Kievan Rus'. Expert sailors and navigators aboard their characteristic longships, Vikings established Norse settlements and governments in the British Isles, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, Normandy, and the Baltic coast, as well as alon ...
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Norman Architecture
The term Norman architecture is used to categorise styles of Romanesque architecture developed by the Normans in the various lands under their dominion or influence in the 11th and 12th centuries. In particular the term is traditionally used for English Romanesque architecture. The Normans introduced large numbers of castles and fortifications including Norman keeps, and at the same time monasteries, abbeys, churches and cathedrals, in a style characterised by the usual Romanesque rounded arches (particularly over windows and doorways) and especially massive proportions compared to other regional variations of the style. Origins These Romanesque styles originated in Normandy and became widespread in northwestern Europe, particularly in England, which contributed considerable development and where the largest number of examples survived. At about the same time, a Norman dynasty that ruled in Sicily produced a distinctive variation–incorporating Byzantine and Sarace ...
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