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Potential New Universal UK Park

Realistically the only place in the UK where this would be a success is the London area. It is one of the most visited cities on earth and has fantastic international transport links - including cheap flights to mainland Europe which would certainly be a key target audience.

If I was to guess it would be somewhere north of London, probably the Luton/ St Albans area. Also, that area is quite easy to get to for passengers arriving off Eurostar into London St Pancras without needing to change to a different London station.

However our planning laws are prohibitively restrictive in the UK. You would hope that Universal have done their diligence and got the local authority and national Gov on board before agreeing to buy land and put in an application.
 
Problem with Merlin parks are most are over 40 years old with sites like Towers and Chessington restricted by planning regs due to them being ex country estates. I suspect Poultons and Drayton have similar issues.

That only leaves Thorpe, Pleasurebeech and Flamingo land with greater scope on terms of ride size and heights. That later two really don't have the funds for consistent major investment leaving Thorpe as the one park which have the funds and fewer restrictions which gives means that can push the boat out so to speak.

If you pick the right site in the right area without all the planning restrictions inflicted on other parks it could be viable and Universal have the means and money to make it happen.
 
McCarthyB said:
If I was to guess it would be somewhere north of London, probably the Luton/ St Albans area. Also, that area is quite easy to get to for passengers arriving off Eurostar into London St Pancras without needing to change to a different London station.
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North of London is a good shout, anywhere close to Thameslink would work very well, direct trains from Luton Airport and Gatwick Airport, via Eurostar from St Pancras and also the Elizabeth line at Farringdon for quick connection to Heathrow / Paddington / Liverpool Street, as well as all the suburban London stations, Brighton, Cambridge, Bedford and plenty of other large towns / cities would mean easy access by train for staff and guests. Plus you'll be close to the M1 so easy access from the Midlands and north by car.
 
Save this post and requote it when this thread reaches the point where the London Resort thread is now.

Building a high investment, high quality theme park in the UK is a rediclous proposition. Land is overpriced, especially in the South East. Planning laws are slow, antiquated and extremely prohibitive, anything that would be built would have the usual miserable British compromises baked in like other building projects. Taxes are high. It costs a lot to employ people (particularly in the South East), there's a skills shortage, a labour shortage and a hostility towards foreigners. The country is in long term economic decline, has low levels of productivity and has severed it's strong trading links with its closest neighbouring countries. Raw materials are expensive. Energy costs are high. Public transport is laughably old fashioned, and where it isn't, even Eurostar can't be bothered to operate much here anymore. Political instability is high. Living standards are declining. The country is a small island on the western fringes of Europe that is more expensive and harder to get to than others on the mainland of the continent.

The second largest theme park operator in the world is based in the UK and dominates the UK theme park industry. It's estate consists of one of the largest and most beautiful parks in Europe, yet it doesn't have enough custom to keep it operating profitably after 4 in the afternoon. It's most prestigious attraction is 30 years old. It had to fight tooth and nail through a long arduous planning process to build a new hyper coaster so short that it's height is materially pointless. Queueing under 2 hours for a bog standard Maurer spinner is considered a good result. If there was potential to make some money from this market, I'm sure the UK market leader would have found out a way of doing it by now when the economic conditions were far better than they are currently.

There simply aren't many positive micro or macro environmental factors to justify any large scale shiny new world class park being built in the UK from scratch. My advice would be for you all to manage your expectations to avoid disappointment. Internet rumours are internet rumours, but think about the reality for a moment.
 
I think it's a fact that Universal are looking to expand, whether that be with new theme parks or some of these smaller destination resorts like in Texas. Universal taking over PortAventura seems to make a lot more sense than Universal building a new theme park in the UK. Could they do both? Potentially, but I am not sure that makes sense, not least because UK tourists would be a somewhat significant marker for a Universal park in Spain!

Having said that, a lot of these Universal insiders do know their stuff. They've leaked many details of Universal projects Stateside before they've been announced, including details of Epic Universe. So I highly doubt that this stuff has just been made up.

The talk is that if this is to happen, it will be by the end of the decade. Seems optimistic, but you'd think we're likely to hear something within the next year if that is going to be the case. I don't doubt that it's something Universal have at least considered, but this is very much a case of I'll believe it when I see it at the moment!
 
6 years for them to pull it off.

Not particularly optimistic. Depends heavily on location and whether the locals would be on board (as if).
 
Relife said:
I would argue that Towers in particular has a unique problem of being in the middle of knowhere so people are more inclined to leave early.

Universal should just pretend to be a housing developer as they pretty much get to build where they like.
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London aside, I’d argue the next best place is on Alton’s doorstep.

Manchester, Birmingham, East Mids, Liverpoool airport an hour away.

Good road connections if near the M6/M1, good rail connections with WCML and Midland Mainline.

Centre of the country so appeals to all.

And the land would be a quarter of the cost.

But London warps the UK economy so much, I just couldn’t see it happening
 
Matt.GC said:
The second largest theme park operator in the world is based in the UK and dominates the UK theme park industry. It's estate consists of one of the largest and most beautiful parks in Europe, yet it doesn't have enough custom to keep it operating profitably after 4 in the afternoon. It's most prestigious attraction is 30 years old. It had to fight tooth and nail through a long arduous planning process to build a new hyper coaster so short that it's height is materially pointless. Queueing under 2 hours for a bog standard Maurer spinner is considered a good result. If there was potential to make some money from this market, I'm sure the UK market leader would have found out a way of doing it by now when the economic conditions were far better than they are currently.
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I don't think Thorpe actually did have to fight that hard to get Hyperia built? Environment Agency had questions about the flood risk, which seems sensible when building on a lake, but overall I think the planning was quite straightforward, certainly easier than Drayton, Chessington, Legoland and Alton where they are closer to residents so have more issues with neighbours.

Gullivers did recently build a holiday park and mini theme park from scratch so it isn't that hard to do in the right location.
In this case if Universal got a location away from other properties I expect it should be fairly easy to build without too many major planning issues, again Thorpe Park doesn't have major issues with planning except for the flood issues due to them often needing to infill the lake now. If they pick a location near a motorway and not to close to residences I can see this getting built. Main issue with being further from towns of course is staffing, but those enormous Amazon warehouses near the motorway seem to manage OK.
 
It’s probably worth nothing that Comcast own Sky and they have a large studios just down the road from the HP Tour.

Also, if Universal really are planning a UK park they should lean in to British IPs. I’m thinking Dr Who etc.
 
NEC area could be a good shout, they’ll have less trouble with planning as the Midlands are dying for investment

From a US perspective, it’s also very central. Walt chose the location for WDW because it was pretty much drop a pin in the middle of Florida, similar thinking could apply to here

I’m not getting excited just yet, though
 
Looks like closed season has definitely hit then...

Jokes aside - and whether the rumour has any credibility or not - how many times have we seen this story before? Have Universal themselves not already tried to set up shop here and not gotten anywhere? What's happening with the London Resort? Why not do what Disney did and built on the continent, as to appeal to more countries?

As cool as it would be to see a massive new park open here, add me to the skeptics list - when they start doing some proper groundwork somewhere, then I'll believe it - even if I would like it to be true.
 
Jb85 said:
I can't think of anywhere around Birmingham that could fit a park this size.
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There's probably a good 3-4km² around Little Packington, between the HS2 station and M6 that might be suitable for a theme park
 
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