The History of Chessington World of Adventures
July 1931 saw the first opening of Chessington World of Adventures, except back then there were no rides and it was called Chessington Zoo. The park was owned by Reginald Goddard and it consisted of his collection of private animals. After the war despite the additions of a circus, miniature 
railway and a funfair the 800,000 attendance figures were declining.
In 1978 Chessington Zoo was sold to the Pearson Group who would later buy Madam Tussauds and merged them to form the Tussauds Group that still exists today.
The Pearson Group went on to invest £12m in the park during 1981 to transform the park into what it is today. This transformation took 6 years and then in July 1987 the park was opened by H.R.H. Prince Edward.
The Tussauds Group was later sold by Pearson’s to Charterhouse Development Capitol for £351m on the 19th October 1998. The Tussauds Group has since then been valued at £1billion, and now consists of Alton Towers, Thorpe Park, Warwick Castle, Heide Park, and Madam Tussauds in 5 different countries, not to mention Chessington World of Adventures.
From 2000 the target audience of Chessington World of Adventures started to change. As Tussauds now owned Thorpe Park which is located on a larger area of land that can receive planning permission for much taller rides than Chessington ever could, the decision was made to turn Chessington World of Adventures into a park aimed at Families and Thorpe Park to aim at Thrill Seeking teenagers.