We have thousands of pages of new documents for the planning of Universal’s new theme park and resort in the United Kingdom. Submitted publicly as part of their request for permission to build, these complex files contain important details like construction timelines, height limits, park operating hours, and for the first time, what they’re already planning for future expansions.
Let’s see what we can learn from these documents about the upcoming Universal Studios Great Britain resort. See the video version of this story below for additional visuals.
Filed publicly on July 3rd, for review by residents, the Ministry of Housing Communities, and Local Government, this collection of documents is called the “Request for planning permission: Entertainment Resort Complex, Bedford.”
The documents are split into six categories, each containing multiple documents that can be downloaded. There are dozens of PDFs, which collectively contain thousands of pages, as well as zip folders filled with related graphics.
While a large portion of the collection is focused on environmental impact of the future resort, being developed now on nearly 500 acres of land owned by Universal in Bedfordshire, England, there are also plenty of documents describing what types of offerings they intend to build.
WHAT TO EXPECT
The proposed resort still does not have an official name. Instead, documents refer to the overall project as the Entertainment Resort Complex, or ERC for short.
The cover letter for the documents says this will include a theme park, additional elements like hotels, retail, dining, and entertainment, as well as other visitor accommodation like recreation, venues with convention space, and backstage support like offices, utilities, and parking.
An overview of the planning proposal goes even further, describing additional elements such as possible water park(s).
For an easy to understand summary of what they’re planning, there’s a file named Design and Access Statement. This PDF is over 100 pages long, and includes some detailed graphics and descriptions for what we can expect the future resort to look like, including landscaping, signage, and public right of ways.
But it is the foreword to this particular document that holds some interesting details.
The foreword starts by hyping up the future resort, saying they are ready to top what they’ve already done. That they’ve changed the industry with parks like Epic Universe, and they’re ready to do it again here, with groundbreaking new attractions and immersive lands.
The document reiterates how this destination will be home not only to a theme park, but also hotels, restaurants, and a conference centre. It says “this is the future of Universal, but it’s only the beginning.”
Marking the first time the company describes what type of theme park this will be, it goes on to say guests will “be surrounded by a place that will evoke the spirit of the Hollywood dream before they step through the iconic Universal Arch into a new vision of our Studio Parks.”
It goes on to say how this Studio Park will contain blockbuster attractions, adrenaline-pumping coasters, and mind-blowing spectaculars. We’ll come face-to-face with incredible creatures, heroes, and villains. Despite being described as a Studio Park, they do confirm there will be “immersive worlds” you’ve “only ever dreamed of.”
The previously released official concept art for the theme park seems to back up this new style of Studio Park. The entrance areas appear to be themed as classic Hollywood, similar to a traditional Universal Studios theme park, but as you make your way around the park’s central lagoon, there seem to be more immersive and self contained lands. This is similar to parks like Islands of Adventure, or Universal Studios Beijing.
Digging deeper into this same document, it goes on to describe some of the different structures we could see at the future resort, including multi-purpose sound stage facilities. It says “The Theme Park may utilise these spaces for private parties, special ticketed events (such as Halloween Horror Nights or Fan Fest Nights) or shows.
This is not the only document where events like Halloween Horror Nights are brought up, but it is interesting to see them describe how buildings that could be used for such an event may be part of the plans from the start.
RESORT LAYOUT
The land where this future resort will be built is being separated into four zones: The Core Zone to the south, Lake Zone to the north, and the West and East Gateway Zones on either side of the property.
The Core Zone is where the theme park itself will be built. It will also contain the guest parking lot, a hotel with up to 500 rooms, and a shopping and retail district like CityWalk.
In going through every single page of every document, very few show the actual outline for the future theme park itself. It was a set of drainage images that seemed to be the best look at the shape of the actual theme park area, highlighted below in yellow.
We can also see the general shape of the guest parking lot at the bottom of the property. Behind the theme park is presumably backstage support areas. To the left of the park is the on-site hotel with 500 rooms. (The next image shows these areas with labels added for clarity.)
One of the drainage images even shows could be the ring road around the theme park, seen below highlighted in red. The two round dead ends may be used for vehicle turn around, like for emergency rescue vehicles, or Team Member shuttles taking employees from backstage to closer to their work areas.
That would put the entry arch for this new theme park right between the two turnarounds, just to the right of the hotel, as seen circled below.
The Core Zone also contains the resort’s CityWalk-style area, which will be part of the theme park’s entry area. The table below lists everything within the Core Zone, but only describes the CityWalk area as the Entry Plaza, which may be the area highlighted in the image above, located directly in front of the iconic Universal arch.
The Entry Plaza is described in documents as not requiring a theme park ticket to enter, and containing themed retail, bars, restaurant and entertainment.
North of the theme park is the Lake Zone. Prior documents listed this area for multi-purpose future construction, but these new documents shed some light on to what could be built in this large area.
According to the same table above, future development of the Lake Zone could contain: Business Hotels with up to 2,000 rooms, and additional Hotels or other Accommodations with up to 3,370 rooms. These new hotels and other accommodations would not open in the first year though.
But that’s not all, as a large section of the Lake Zone seems to be set aside for a Convention Centre, 55,000 square meters to be exact. Like the hotels, the Convention Centre would not be expected to open in the first year of the resort, but once open it sounds like it will be able to host events for 3,000 people.
The East Gateway zone on the right will be home to the future four-platform Wixams rail station, under construction now. But don’t write the gateway zones off as just for arriving visitors.
The West Gateway Zone, which will be the main entrance ramp for arriving vehicles, will apparently have space for even more development.
According to the table, the West Gateway Zone will also host a gas station with 16 pumps, restaurants up to 5,866 square meters, and yet another hotel with 200 more rooms.
Like the Lake Zone, these additions are not expected for the resort’s opening year, but it is interesting to see dining options being proposed outside of the resort’s main CityWalk-like area in front of the theme park.
With the 200 additional rooms possible here in the West Gateway Zone, along with the 5,300 future rooms in the Lake Zone, and the initial 500 in the Core Zone, the entire resort is expected to some day host 6,070 hotel rooms in total.
THEME PARK HEIGHTS
One element described in detail in these documents that has been discussed by many outlets already, are the maximum heights for the new resort.
Some of the documents show visual representations of how tall structures may appear from a distance when looking towards the theme park from varying vantage points.
These 3D representations aren’t showing specific structures, but instead are illustrating the max heights possible as large cubes.
The blue in these graphics represent where the tallest structures can be built. The white top section seen in some of the graphics represent some elements of attractions that can be built even higher than that.
Buildings occupied by people in the blue areas will be limited to no higher than 75 meters above ground level, but what the documents refer to as the “Attraction Overlay Zone” is allowed another 40 meters on top of that.
The disclaimer on the right side of the page below describes the Attraction Overlay Zone as taller sections of a structure like architectural features, (towers, spires, etc.,) as well as in the case of rides, “tracks.”
This blue striped area on the map below is where this Attraction Overlay Zone is in effect, which means rides like roller coasters within this area, essentially the entire theme park itself, are able to be built as tall as 115 meters. To put that another way, that is 377 feet.
The tallest roller coaster in Europe right now, Red Force at PortAventura in Spain, is 367 feet tall.
In analyzing the official concept art for the Universal UK park, fans agree that the tallest roller coaster pictured, seen on the left, appears to be themed to the Back to the Future franchise.
Area of the art fans are convinced is Back to the Future
Amusement Insider on YouTube has created a visualization for this possible roller coaster, and in doing so has calculated how tall a ride would need to be to reach the iconic 88 miles per hour from the films.
At its tallest, their visualization puts the spike for this possible coaster at about 310 feet above the ground, an amount that is well within the max height limits as explained in the planning documents.
The documents go on to show a possible view of the skyline into the Universal UK park, with the darker foreground representing a view of some of the structures in the park as seen from outside the park. The light gray structures in the background are comparing existing attractions at other parks to see a contrast in a possible average view of the skyline.
The image, seen above, is titled “Articulated skyline concept and comparative heights,” and while it is referring to it as a concept, we’re not entirely sure if it is accurate to what will be built for this park.
What could possibly be the Jurassic World Adventure entrance can be seen as a triangle in the skyline, on the left-hand side of the image. That is an attraction from Universal Studios Beijing that fans believe may have been included in the official concept art for this park.
The roller coaster pictured in this height comparison graphic does not match the possible Back to the Future coaster, as no spike can be spotted.
Taking the entire graphic as a whole though, perhaps if this is an accurate view into the UK Universal park, it’s only displaying a section of the north side of the park; the section of the park with a possible Jurassic World themed roller coaster? See the comparison image above for reference.
THEME PARK HOURS & EVENTS
When it comes to how the upcoming theme park will affect the surrounding residents, the operating hours can be an important consideration. The documents discuss possible operating hours in multiple places, including special circumstances for special events and holidays.
Normal theme park hours are listed as between 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM. Keep in mind that this will not be the average operating hours, but instead is a window of time in which the park could be open during.
Example scenarios listed elsewhere in the documents describe how the park could open at 9:00 AM, but parking would open two hours earlier at 7. It says that guests could dine or shop in the CityWalk-style Entry Plaza area before the park’s opening time.
The table above lists seasonal events like Halloween Horror Nights as keeping the park open until 2:00 AM up to 60 nights per year.
Annual holidays could keep the park open till 1:00 AM, 5 nights a year.
And other special events, including private events, would also keep the park open till 1:00 AM, up to 30 times a year.
Loud music could possibly play up until 11:00 PM each night, except for all special events, where it would be cut off by 12:30 AM, even during Halloween Horror Nights. This is not referring to theme park background and ambiance, but may strictly mean very loud music like concerts or DJ parties for events like New Year’s Eve.
And speaking of special events and holidays, the documents lay out plans for fireworks displays. Generally, they claim the park will not have regular fireworks displays as part of its day-to-day operation.
However, they state there could be up to 10 fireworks shows permitted each year. Five of these possible displays would take place around Chinese New Year, 5th of November, Diwali, and New Year’s Eve.
Other pyrotechnics for rides and shows will be executed in short bursts according to documents. An example could be for the finale for the Waterworld Stunt Show.
Despite not offering daily fireworks, that does not mean the theme park is not planning to offer some sort of nightly show all together. This document does say that drone shows will be a regular part of the day-to-day operation of the theme park.
THEME PARK PARKING
There are plenty of documents dedicated to measuring future traffic patterns and discussing upcoming changes in transportation options to get visitors to the new resort, but one interesting new tidbit of info is how many parking spaces there will be.
At grand opening the main theme park areas will have a minimum of 7,106 parking spots, (and 100 bays for buses). Of those parking spaces 6,668 spots will be for the theme park, CityWalk area, and backstage for Team Members. The remaining 438 spaces are for the 500-room on-site hotel.
Of the theme park and CityWalk parking spaces, 100 to 150 would be allocated for valet parking.
Outside of the main theme park area, calculations have been made for how many parking spaces will be needed for the possible additional 5,570 hotel rooms across the site, (5,370 in the Lake Zone and 200 in the West Gateway Zone, in addition to the initial 500 rooms in the Core Zone).
Additional parking for possible dining options in the West Gateway Zone have been calculated, as well as the gas station in that area. The future Convention Centre in the Lake Zone has been accounted for too.
All together, this additional parking adds another 4,529 minimum spots needed for the resort. When added to the 6,668 needed for the main theme park area, that gives us a minimum of 11,197 parking spaces needed for the entire project.
It’s worth noting that the full build out of the resort is predicted by the documentation as happening by 2051, twenty years after the grand opening year.
While it may be too early to know this information for certain, example scenarios in the documents describe the theme park parking lot as charging £35 per vehicle. This may not be the final price, but it is listed twice as the cost for parking during the first year of operation.
ANNUAL VISITORS
Universal claims their new resort will attraction 8.5 million visitors in its opening year, with a total of 12.5 million visitors in the future. These estimates include theme park visitors, as well as guests who may visit the CityWalk-style dining, retail, and entertainment of the Entry Plaza without entering the park.
The documents explain that these annual estimates are based partly on the Themed Entertainment Association’s reporting of their other theme park resort offerings around the world.
They are expecting a split of 70/30 for domestic and international visitors the first year—with more visitors coming in locally—but a near 50/50 split in future years. According to this table, they say up to 48% of visitors to the park will eventually be international visitors, coming from outside of the UK.
Their forecast for daily attendance levels for the first year are broken down into four categories: Low at 10,000 visitors a day, Average at 23,000, Busy at 40,000, and Peak at 55,000. (See chart at start of this section above.)
With the theme park open all 365 days a year, they’re expecting Low attendance around 80 days out of the year the first year, with Average attendance around 230 days, and then 40 Busy days, and only 15 Peak days. Peak days would include things like holidays.
The theme park area of the new resort will employ 8,050 Team Members the first year, increasing to 10,000 in the future.
CONSTRUCTION TIMELINE
An updated version of the example construction timeline was released as part of this document package, seen below. The estimated times for each of the phases of construction may be accurate, but what year each phase begins is till dependent on gaining approvals and other factors.
Going into detail for each of the phases of construction, we can learn what to expect over the next five years:
Phase 1a – Advanced works will only take 9 to 12 months, and is already underway now. It describes work like installing a security fence around the property, something that was completed earlier this year. It also describes prep work for existing roads.
Phase 1b – Enabling Works & Grading is what we can expect to start next. It involves reworking the land to accommodate proper water drainage, adjusting heights of the land by adding or removing earth, and creating berms with some landscaping.
Phase 1c – Primary Infrastructure Works includes final land grading for the theme park area, the installation of all underground utilities, and construction of new roads inside of the property. This is the final land prep before moving into actual Theme Park Construction.
Phase 1d will connect all of the recently installed underground utilities. 1e will build the final guest roadways. And 1f is work associated with the construction of the Wixams Rail Station.
While some of these earlier phases are ongoing, the planning of the theme park itself is happening in the background. Designing, getting approvals, and ordering materials and fabricating attraction elements are all overlapping while the land is being prepared.
Finally, taking less than three years, the last main phase is simply called “Theme Park Construction,” and will include building the theme park, backstage areas, hotel, and transportation hubs.
The document says this phase will “involve cutting edge technology to create fully immersive experiences where the attractions, placemaking, food, merchandise and costumes all work together.”
At the height of construction, which is expected to be the fourth year of work in 2029, there will be 5,380 workers on site at once building the park.
Team Member services and a backstage parking will be completed ahead of the theme park itself, to allow early staff onboarding and training.
A period of Commissioning and Testing will overlap with the completion of Theme Park Construction, allowing for attractions and other elements to be tested and perfected by park open.
Beyond the initial resort and theme park opening by 2031, phase 2 will continue for the next 20 years. This phase 2 work will include non-theme park construction, like the new hotels and convention centre for the Lake Zone, as well as new roadworks to connect these new areas to the existing resort.
NEXT STEPS
The public documents we’ve been looking through were shared so that local government and residents can get caught up on Universal’s full proposal by the end of next month, August 2025, as the company seeks final permissions to begin major work.
Universal has already secured permissions to begin work on the perimeter around the future theme park area, but still requires permission to build the theme park itself.
Environmental concerns make up a large portion of the documents released this month, including concerns for local wildlife, the removal and planting of new trees, and the preservation of natural habitats.
Recommendations have been made based on the archaeological surveys done last year, including the preservation and mitigation of damage to artifacts dating back to Medieval, Early Roman, and Iron Ages.
Universal has shared the results of last year’s survey of local residents’ opinions on this proposed project. They say they received 6,111 responses, most of which were overwhelmingly positive.
When asked what is the most important considering when considering a theme park project for Bedford, residents selected preset answers like creating jobs and bringing economic benefits most. The most popular write-in answers for Other though, were to be able to visit a Universal theme park without having to travel abroad.
When asked for ideas to celebrate the area’s history the top answer was to somehow incorporate old bricks from the old brickworks site in the new theme park.
Surprisingly, ALL write-in answers from the survey were actually included in the release of the public documents.
We can read through 1,400 pages of responses of personal responses, which contain things like “I want a theme park,” or “Just do it.” Long, impassioned replies can be found, as well as local residents with reasonable concerns… But overall, the response was mostly positive.
Documents discussed the way the media has covered the proposed theme park and resort positively as well, showing quotes from various outlets, as well as mentioning who has been talking about developments since the beginning.
THEME PARK SPECULATION
We still don’t know for sure what properties the lands and attractions at the new theme park will be based on. The company has released one piece of official concept art, and using it fans have speculated on what we believe many of the areas could be based on.
Even the local resident survey results paint a picture for the types of things people expect to see at the new park, with terms like Jurassic Park or Jurassic World appearing dozens of times in people’s answers. Harry Potter appears over 200 times. Back to the Future, Jaws, and Minions show up in surveys too, as well as Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and even Paddington Bear.
Over a year later since those survey responses were recorded last April, and many of those properties now show up on fans’ speculation maps as well, but we still have to wait for confirmation before we know for sure which ones we have gotten right.
That’s all for now, but ensure you are subscribed to the site to never miss an update by entering your email below, or subscribe to the YouTube channel for more updates. Check out the video version of this story for additional visuals, and follow along with us on this new journey of development and construction of a whole new theme park and resort from the very beginning.
Subscribe to the news feed or enter your email address below to never miss an update. Official Art: Universal Destinations & Experiences | Official Documents: gov.uk | Graphics and Overlays: Alicia Stella | Other Images as Captioned
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