Throughout the late 80s and early 90s, attraction designers like John Wardley were working hard to bring the American concept of a theme park to the UK, and a lot of the parks we know and love today, Thorpe Park, Chessington, Alton Towers and more, were all being redeveloped or built to fit into this growing industry. The growth of theme parks brought the openings of many well-loved classic rides and attractions that still bring a wave of nostalgia for some, one of which being Bubbleworks, located in the Transylvania area of Chessington World of Adventures. This year is the 30th anniversary of this nostalgic darkride and it’s neighbour attraction Vampire, so lets explore 30 years of Bubbleworks history and celebrate the whimsical beauty of this classic attraction!
Just don’t forget the Secret Formula: Juice plus gas equals POP!
The Redevelopment of Chessington Zoo
From it’s opening in 1931, the aim and layout of Chessington Zoo remained mainly the same, a major zoo similar to the nearby London Zoo. Wow, I said ‘zoo’ a lot in that sentence. That was until 1984 however, when the Tussards Group, that owned the complex at the time, decided it was time for an upgrade after a decline in attendance. This would involve the building of several new themed lands, each with their own rides and attractions that fit the theme of the area, and the zoo area becoming just another attraction at the park.
Three years later the renovated attraction opened to the public as Chessington World Of Adventures, a major pioneer in the UK theme park industry. At the time just six rides were in the park, including Runaway Mine Train, Dragon River, Safari Skyway, Smugglers Galleon, The 5th Dimension and the Chessington Railroad; it sounds like a lot, but today Chessington has over forty! Many of these rides are still operating today, just under different names, for example in 2014 Runaway Mine Train became Scorpion Express, with Dragon River becoming Tiger Rock in 2018.
Transylvania’s Two Attractions
1990 brought the opening of Transylvania, a new themed land loosely based on the Romanian region of the same name, which is said to be home to vampires, as part of the second phase of Chessington’s transformation. With it came two brand new rides, Vampire, an Arrow Suspended Swinging Coaster, and Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks, a water-based darkride that was an instant success with visitors young and old. Both attractions were designed by John Wardley, who also designed many other attractions around the park, including The 5th Dimension, now Tomb Blaster.
Medieval theming is used on the show buildings that house Vampire’s dispatch station and the entirety of what was Bubbleworks, as well as on the facades of restaurants and gift shops, to fit with the historic and spooky theme of the area.
Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks- the ride that didn’t quite fit
Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks was an incredible ride, combining whimsical storytelling with colourful and kinetic show scenes so there was always something to look at, but… it didn’t really fit with the overall theme of Transylvania. The attraction took riders on a tour of a magical lemonade factory, led by the factory owner himself Professor Burp. When visiting the park as a child, I always felt that Hocus Pocus Hall and Bubbleworks would fit better in opposite places- Hocus Pocus always had more of a Transylvania vibe to it, don’t you think? This wouldn’t have been able to happen however, as it’s unlikely that Burnt Stub Manor, the building that housed Hocus Pocus Hall
Despite this, Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks was a massive success- visitors loved it’s whimsical, vibrant scenes, the quirky feel it had to it, and of course the music, which probably just got stuck in your head. John Wardley worked with Keith Sparks of the Sparks Group, a company specialising attraction design, to design the characters and rooms that appear in the ride. Meanwhile, the UK engineering companies WGH Transportation and LeisureEtc. joined forces to build the ride’s mechanical system, an omnimover type water-based boat system in which the boats sail between the edges of the water pool, occasionally hitting the borders lightly. This is still used today on Bubbleworks’ rethemed version, which will be discussed later in the post!
WGH would later work with Tussards/Merlin again, on the largest coaster currently at Legoland Windsor: The Dragon, then on this coaster’s smaller version, known as Dragon’s Apprentice.
The Ride Experience
Your tour of Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks began even before you boarded your “Bubble Tub”; the queueline was filled with beautiful hand painted images advertising fictional soda drinks such as Luminous Pop, Cratorade and Jackpot Juice, as well as a bright Transylvania skyline mural just before the beginning of the ride.
The first scene showed Professor Burp in his office, teaching riders the “Secret Formula”: juice + gas= POP! Visitors would then be taken to see the Tropical Fruit Room, with a scene showing a dancing woman singing a song about fruit, along with her pet monkey. Several smaller scenes and rooms would pass then, until riders reached the Laughing Gas scene, with large laughing metal pipes, and an animatronic of Professor Burp also laughing!
If you want to take a virtual ride on the original Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks, by British Theme Park Archive!
This eccentric room led to what may have been the only scary scene in the whole ride: The Pressure Room. The factory staff, known as Willyheads, had conducted some kind of bubble-related experiment gone wrong, and a terrifying red bubble towered over the riders, a menacing look on it’s face! The Mixing Room contained the Hippo Mixer, which, um, wasn’t a hippo, it was an elephant, and could be found in a different room on the ride until Bubbleworks’ closure in 2016, as well as animatronic fruits sitting in a tub known as the Juice Jacuzzi.
Towards the end of the tour riders would visit a kind of bubble funfair, where Professor Burp, on a bike this time, “re-cycles” empty bottles, surrounded by bright amusement rides such as the Helter Seltzer and the famous Cola Coaster. This was arguably the most kinetic scene in this already extremely animated darkride, and was an amazing build-up to the grand finale: Bubbleworks’ iconic fountains. Here you were guaranteed to get wet- absolutely soaked if you were unlucky! Mirrors strategically placed around the room made the scene feel a lot bigger and more magical!
The 2006 Refurbishment
Many incredible designers, engineers, artists and musicians worked tirelessly throughout the late 1980s to create the beautiful experience that was Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks, but little did they know that sixteen years after their creation opened to the public, a sponsorship would brutally take away the charm the ride’s previous incarnation had.
In 2005, the Tussards Group, that owned Chessington World of Adventures, Legoland Windsor, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers up until 2007, struck a sponsorship deal with Imperial Leather, a toiletries company well known for their soaps and handwashes, and later that year, Chessington WOA announced that Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks would be closing for a major refurbishment, much of it occurring during the 2005/06 off-season.
Just a year after the announcement, the new and (not) improved Bubbleworks opened to mostly negative reviews. All references to soda and fizzy pop were removed and replaced with:
Bubbles. Lots and lots of bubbles.
And rubber ducks. In fact, large parts of the previous soundtrack were simply covered with repetitive duck quacks, and many of the scenes became duck-infested too. Even the iconic Cola Coaster was converted to the Duck-And-Dive-Revitaliser, with- you guessed it- a duck riding it.
The name “Bubbleworks” no longer referred to the bubbles you might find in a fizzy drink, instead they were the bubbles in a bubble bath, and the moment you entered the show building, you would have images of bubbles thrown at you, with printed images replacing the beautiful murals that were in the previous version. The logo of the ride’s sponsoring company, Imperial Leather, made several appearances too, with one of the final rooms being almost absolutely covered with it.
Hardly any elements of the previous ride were left, with Professor Burp being completely taken out of the attraction, and many of the most iconic scenes from Burp’s Bubbleworks were nowhere to be seen. The kinetic, vibrant aspect of the ride was gone too- when Bubbleworks first opened, Chessington World of Adventures encountered multiple problems with the animatronics frequently needing maintenance, however in this version, there were virtually no animatronics to need maintenance; many of the scenes were completely static. Some of the scenes did still have the 3D element that was so prominent in the original version, but sadly many didn’t, simply becoming 2D and boring.
None of the original design team were offered the chance to contribute to this new project, and Bubbleworks became a soulless shell of the incredible ride it once was. John Wardley even refused to ride the Imperial Leather Bubbleworks, as he was so upset at what the park had done to the ride. Reviewers called it “completely idiotic” and “charmless” compared to the original, or just compared to many other darkrides across Europe. Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks fitted well enough into Transylvania, as a Transylvanian soda factory, but the Imperial Leather version just stuck out like a sore thumb.
In December 2013, a fire broke out at the adjacent Creaky Café restaurant, and although it was only minor, a wall of the Bubbleworks fountain finale scene was damaged in the event. The ride was temporarily closed whilst repairs took place, and the park took this opportunity to repaint the façade blue, as opposed to the red-pink colour that was there before.
Ending Eight Years of Sponsorship
The 2006 version of Bubbleworks operated for eight years, until Imperial Leather ended their sponsorship with Chessington World of Adventures. But would this save the ride and give Merlin Entertainments a chance to restore it to it’s former glory?
No.
Merlin were already working on some pretty big projects at the time, including the retheme of Chessington’s Runaway Mine Train to Scorpion Express and the construction of Cbeebies Land over in Alton Towers, so the company simply could not afford to make major changes to Bubbleworks, too. Instead all the Imperial Leather branding was just removed, with the logo on the entrance signage being replaced with a rubber duck. I guess even with Merlin now running the park, they just couldn’t move away from the excessive rubber ducks.
A Factory “Under New Management”
In Summer 2016, Chessington World of Adventures announced that Bubbleworks would close in September that year, and around the same time they teased a new family-friendly Gruffalo attraction, in which riders could explore the “deep, dark woods” with the mouse from the popular children’s book. The park had a grand closing ceremony for Bubbleworks, with enthusiasts and the media getting behind the scenes tours of the classic darkride, and even rides with the Bubbleworks’ original owner, Professor Burp! Soon after this the ride closed permanently on September 6th 2016, to great upset from past visitors who had fond memories of Bubbleworks, whether it be the original version, or the newer incarnation.
The Era of the Gruffalo
Construction began on the new ride almost immediately, with much of it occurring during the winter months when the parks were closed. Merlin Magic Making, who designed many of the family attractions we see at Merlin parks today, were responsible for the design of many of the scenes on this new Gruffalo attraction, mostly incorporating screens and projections into the ride, as well as smell pods to create the illusion that you really are exploring the deep, dark, woods!
Gruffalo River Ride Adventure opened to the public in time for the 2017 season, bringing with it a retheme of Transylvania to Wild Woods, in order to fit with the theme of the new ride, and it’s said that Vampire now represents the vampire bats you would see in a forest at night, rather than being themed to actual vampires.
Compared to Professor Burp’s Bubbleworks, and even the Imperial Leather Bubbleworks, Gruffalo features few physical sets, but the effective use of projections and lighting more than make up for it! According to some sources, many of the scenes in Gruffalo River Ride Adventure were simply built in front of the old Bubbleworks scenes, as the show building was designed to incorporate such large show scenes and it was cheaper to just leave them there!
The Future of Chessington’s IP Movement
Not many people knew it then, but the opening of Gruffalo River Ride Adventure was the beginning of something big for Chessington. Just a year later, Hocus Pocus Hall closed to for a retheme, and Room on the Broom- A Magical Journey, a new family-friendly walkthrough experience utilising animatronics and interactive scenes, opened for the 2019 season. Both attractions brought with them all the features of a theme park IP deal, complete with a lot of new merchandise, as well as shows such as The Gruffalo Groove.
In early 2020, Flying Jumbos was relocated to the Adventure Point area of the park, and renamed Elmer’s Flying Jumbos, after the well-loved children’s book Elmer the Patchwork Elephant. Sadly this version of the classic flat ride hasn’t had much of a chance to operate yet, with Chessington World of Adventures closing in conjunction with social distancing guidelines just a week after opening for the 2020 season.
It’s certainly an interesting path Chessington is taking with it’s new IP rethemes, and it begs the question: which classic ride is next to be rethemed? Just last year, Rameses Revenge, the park’s Huss TopSpin, closed to make way for a family droptower, however very few details have been released for the ride as of yet, but it’s likely this, too will be related to some kind of IP or sponsorship deal! I just hope it turns out more like Gruffalo or Room on the Broom, rather than like Imperial Leather Bubbleworks!
Did you ever ride Bubbleworks at Chessington World of Adventures, either the original or the newer version? Do you think Gruffalo is a worthy successor? Share your thoughts below, and join the conversation!
Your articles are amazing. Thank you for your hard work.
It’s definitely worth a visit! 🙂
Interesting! Never heard of that park before
Love this Lily
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Coaster Dreamers 
Thank you so much! I’m so glad you enjoy them. Sorry about the late reply -Lily 🙂