Universal buys land near London, considering a new theme park resort
Universal Destinations & Experiences has officially purchased land in Bedford, England for a potential Universal U.K. theme park location, the company shared with us.
Potential Universal U.K. Theme Park
A Universal Parks & Experiences spokesperson said:
“We recently acquired land in Bedford and are at the early stages of exploring its feasibility for a potential park and resort at this site. It will be many months before we are ready to make a decision to proceed and we look forward to engaging with all relevant stakeholders and the local community.”
In the same communication, Universal stated it has not made a final decision on the future of the Bedford property. The company routinely considers global locations for potential parks.
Universal has also not established what stories or characters would be represented in the proposed park.
Location of Possible Park
Bedford, England is located 45 minutes from London. The town is accessible to over half of the U.K.’s citizens in two hours’ time, according to Universal.
The company old us they were drawn to the U.K.’s population size, tourism appeal, transportation infrastructure, and presence of creative industries.
The graphic below, sent to us by Universal, shows the location of the purchased land. The resort, if built, would reside near the convergence of routes A421, A6, and B530.
The filename of the image reads “20231023-320-LocationPlan-r2.” This could indicate this particular image was created Oct. 23, 2023.
This location is about 80 miles away from Rainham Marshes, where Universal reportedly considered building a resort three decades ago, as chronicled in the Los Angeles Times. That project never came to be.
Universal Destinations & Experiences is further along in development of other future attractions stateside. In the coming years, the company will open Universal Epic Universe in Orlando, Fla.; Universal Horror Unleashed in Las Vegas, Nev.; and Universal Kids Resort in Frisco, Texas.
Unfortunately, it won’t happen because the costs will be exorbitant and only an enclosed, weather-protected space could truly attract the numbers that Universal would wish for. With British ‘brands’ like Harry Potter, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh already catered for elsewhere, it’s unlikely that they would feature again, sadly.
If you were going to build the same HP rides and locations, they’d have to be on the excellent location at Watford.
Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmations (Both Disney-related) or Paddington could work as theme park attractions for younger children but they wouldn’t appeal to adults per se.