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Kent, England | The London Resort | Entertainment Complex

Pokemaniac said:
Now the question remains: why wasn't all that done ten years ago?
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As Pierre himself says in the interview, huge projects like this one will always encounter bumps in the road that cause it to be held back. I admit that this particular project has encountered quite a number of these in the past, but provided consultations and the planning application go well, hopefully this will provide more plain sailing for the project from here on out!
 
It’s definitely doing the news rounds.

www.itv.com

A Kent theme park in four years as public consulted on London Resort | ITV News

The London Resort will have a huge impact on North Kent, and today plans to transform 465 hectares of land on the Swanscombe Peninsula into an ambitious new theme park were put to the public. | ITV News Meridian
www.itv.com www.itv.com

I caught the end of a news report about it on local ITV news, nothing new but if anybody wants to watch it, I guess it’ll be on catch up on the Meridian Tonight website later today.

Sounds like the “leisure core” theme park area has been significantly reduced since the project came to light eight years ago. Slightly more confident something might happen, but not the grand theme park, Universal-esque thing first mooted.
 
The theme park/Leisure Core section will still make up a significant part of the project; I think the first park may have 6 themed areas! Either that, or each gate will have 3 themed areas, with 3 in Gate 1 (2024) and 3 in Gate 2 (2029).

Regardless, they definitely plan to build theme park(s) of some description on the site, as they’ve specifically described 40m high roller coasters and 60m high mountains in the environmental scoping form!
 
You know what?
I'm starting to think that this might actually happen.
What I'm less convinced about is whether it will be any good. I know the details are all still very vague at the moment, but nothing about this project so far is actually getting me excited in any way.
Sure, the concept art looks pretty and colourful but... where are all the rides?? We already know the coasters will very probably have a height ceiling, so we can forget about any hypers, gigas or T-Rex's.
"Most of the attractions will be indoors/undercover". Yeah great, can't wait for that.
"We're not going to do what's been done before, no matter how good or popular it has been". What?? Are you having a laugh? Surely a better business model would to take the very best of what's been done before... and copy it! You know what else was an undercover attraction that hadn't been done before? Derren Brown's Ghost Train. That's it in a nutshell folks - it's gonna be a park filled with the equivalent of a bunch of Derren Brown's Ghost Train's, but based on BBC stuff.
It's gonna be massively overpriced right from the off. Let's face it, it's gonna have to be, just to recoup the 12 years of lost investment in planning the bloody place.
Remember when Disneyland Paris (or the awfully named EuroDisney, as it was known back then) opened? Huuuuge investment, massive infrastructure project and ultimately utter sh*t for the first decade? Yeah, it's gonna be that all over again, with echoes of the Millenium Dome thrown in for good measure.
Yeah nah, I've given up hope on this thing long ago. I'm 46 ffs! I might live to see it open, but I'm fairly sure I'll be long gone (or at least well past my coasting days) before this place is gonna be worth visiting.
 
Howie said:
You know what?
I'm starting to think that this might actually happen.
What I'm less convinced about is whether it will be any good. I know the details are all still very vague at the moment, but nothing about this project so far is actually getting me excited in any way.
Sure, the concept art looks pretty and colourful but... where are all the rides?? We already know the coasters will very probably have a height ceiling, so we can forget about any hypers, gigas or T-Rex's.
"Most of the attractions will be indoors/undercover". Yeah great, can't wait for that.
"We're not going to do what's been done before, no matter how good or popular it has been". What?? Are you having a laugh? Surely a better business model would to take the very best of what's been done before... and copy it! You know what else was an undercover attraction that hadn't been done before? Derren Brown's Ghost Train. That's it in a nutshell folks - it's gonna be a park filled with the equivalent of a bunch of Derren Brown's Ghost Train's, but based on BBC stuff.
It's gonna be massively overpriced right from the off. Let's face it, it's gonna have to be, just to recoup the 12 years of lost investment in planning the bloody place.
Remember when Disneyland Paris (or the awfully named EuroDisney, as it was known back then) opened? Huuuuge investment, massive infrastructure project and ultimately utter sh*t for the first decade? Yeah, it's gonna be that all over again, with echoes of the Millenium Dome thrown in for good measure.
Yeah nah, I've given up hope on this thing long ago. I'm 46 ffs! I might live to see it open, but I'm fairly sure I'll be long gone (or at least well past my coasting days) before this place is gonna be worth visiting.
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There are going to be coasters; the planning application has asked for permission to build coasters of up to 40m tall, so that’s exciting! PY Gerbeau also said in a previous interview about there being “three or four” major rollercoasters, so the park will not be without fun stuff for the coaster geeks!
 
Howie said:
You know what?
I'm starting to think that this might actually happen.
What I'm less convinced about is whether it will be any good. I know the details are all still very vague at the moment, but nothing about this project so far is actually getting me excited in any way.
Sure, the concept art looks pretty and colourful but... where are all the rides?? We already know the coasters will very probably have a height ceiling, so we can forget about any hypers, gigas or T-Rex's.
"Most of the attractions will be indoors/undercover". Yeah great, can't wait for that.
"We're not going to do what's been done before, no matter how good or popular it has been". What?? Are you having a laugh? Surely a better business model would to take the very best of what's been done before... and copy it! You know what else was an undercover attraction that hadn't been done before? Derren Brown's Ghost Train. That's it in a nutshell folks - it's gonna be a park filled with the equivalent of a bunch of Derren Brown's Ghost Train's, but based on BBC stuff.
It's gonna be massively overpriced right from the off. Let's face it, it's gonna have to be, just to recoup the 12 years of lost investment in planning the bloody place.
Remember when Disneyland Paris (or the awfully named EuroDisney, as it was known back then) opened? Huuuuge investment, massive infrastructure project and ultimately utter sh*t for the first decade? Yeah, it's gonna be that all over again, with echoes of the Millenium Dome thrown in for good measure.
Yeah nah, I've given up hope on this thing long ago. I'm 46 ffs! I might live to see it open, but I'm fairly sure I'll be long gone (or at least well past my coasting days) before this place is gonna be worth visiting.
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For me this comparison totally doesn't work because I don't remember Euro Disney being utter **** at all. As a young teenager it was the number #1 place to go in Europe. Sure Blackpool Pleasure Beach was exciting with the Big One but it wasn't a place that would transport you away for multi days like Euro Disney was. There was nothing else like it in Europe in those days. (others indeed have now caught up and in some ways surpassed) You'd literally needed to have bags of money to fly to the States to have a similar experience. Even then I wasn't THAT impressed with the California park in the 90s to be honest. Riding the original Big Thunder Mountain was a let down in comparison I remember. No thundering through a dark tunnel like crazy.
In fact I think the original Disney park in Paris has suffered more from lack of new stuff since the 90s rather than it initially being a bad park.
All the exciting stuff happened in the first few years: the initial park with an excellent Big Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, Space Mountain. There were evening parades, fireworks every night. Even the food was awesome in the 90s / early 2000s. I think the Disney park near Paris is a shadow of its Euro Disney / early 2000s days. The upkeep has been pretty much perfect but not much exciting has happened for a long time. Only offering a more cut down version of its former glory I think.


That's not to say the London resort won't suck. If it focuses on the short term Thorpe Park-esque Derren 1 ride is all you need forever Brown or Ant N Dec's "ultimate wahey like" moron experience then it will suck for sure. But if it focuses on long term conventional British traditions (Kingdom land) and exciting imagination (Spaceport) it could be excellent. It would then attract international attention. You don't get there with Derren Brown I reckon. It means nothing to anyone outside of the UK.
 
I may have found a piece of the puzzle to do with the financing of the project; @roomraider posted an article back in April 2019 saying about how the project had received Chinese funding: http://www.asiaattractions.net/index.php?s=/web/land/detail.html&id=998

It’s in Chinese, but roomraider very helpfully translated it into English:
Chinese company invested 3.2 billion pounds in London theme park
Source: Theme Park | Time: April 4, 2019
c9e1011ea77b51c8cee3db0d72dfea8e.jpg


On October 21, 2018, China Zhongfu Group announced that it will invest 3.2 billion pounds to participate in the development of the London Paramount Entertainment Resort project. This is another major project after Zhongfu announced that it will invest 250 million pounds to build a UK Cornish resort project and invest 2 billion pounds to build a British biomass power station.


It is understood that the project began construction in 2017 and is scheduled to be completed in 2021. Covering an area of 872 acres (approximately 3.53 million square meters), the theme park project is located on the banks of the River Thames in Kent, East London, close to the London Outer Ring Road M25 and will create 27,000 jobs locally. At the same time, the project also signed a landmark cooperation agreement with BBC Universal: the park will set up rides designed according to BBC programs, such as Doctor Who and Top Gear. After the project is completed, it is expected to attract 15 million tourists to visit.


In addition to the theme park, festival facilities, hotels and other supporting facilities will be built.
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Take from this what you will.

I admit that the article is not overly recent, and there are a few inaccuracies & outdated stats in there (for example, it says that the park will open in 2021 with construction having started in 2017, which definitely isn't true), but it is dated 4th April 2019 with the deal allegedly being signed on 21st October 2018. Since then, the project timeline has stayed fairly consistent at 2024, as far as I'm aware, and I don't think that was too long before PY Gerbeau took the reins.

If the article is to be believed, then we may have had a pretty major investor, as this article states that China Zhongfu Group have invested £3.2bn towards the project. Is this the answer to the finance debate, and could this explain the sudden regaining of momentum since late 2019?
 
Against all odds this project does to appear to have gained quite a bit of momentum recently. I do believe we will see something built there but not a theme park as we know it. They do seem to be pressing ahead at the moment which is encouraging. I soo wish that they would have just slapped a Universal park there and just watch the money flow in rather than go down the Paramount route.

At this point though, I just want the London Resort to happen for Matt N.
 
You know what... I’m gonna say it now, I think this WILL get built... not only that, I think It will be built this decade, and it will be the best themed theme park in the UK!!!

It’s all too easy to expect Chinese / German / Energylandia like efficiency and speed... But this is England, it doesn’t happen like that here!!!! It took at least 7 years to plan and build the ‘Millennium Project’ and that was just a giant glorified tent... A decent project of this size is going to take well over decade with set backs along the way... It was to be expected really.

There’s clearly no shortage of money, the project is government backed, it was designated as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, a whole host of IPs are backing it.... So you know what? So am I!!!

@Matt N I’m with you on this one :) Keep the news coming because if a DCO application does go in by the end of this year, my excitement is going to go into overdrive.

If this does get built, it will mean great things for other parks who will need to stay competitive.
 
The millennium project was a massive failure, that left us with a massive useless tent that cost further millions to turn into something a bit more usefull, but still only temporary, a thirty year tent.
It cost the taxpayer about five hundred quid a punter...
 
emoo said:
^ Put it in a blackout tent, turn the trains backwards and call it 'Worm: Your Way Out'. Done, perfect.

Beat that London Resort, for the love of sanity beat that - and soon before even the most hardy supporter loses faith.
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Worm: Your way out... Would be the greatest ride on Earth... They couldn’t top that with a giga t-rex!!!
 
A guest on ThemeParX forum found some very interesting new concept art for the Resort, as well as a promotional video:
(Password for this is paramountlondon)
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I should add that this was apparently sourced from a LinkedIn account linked to the project.

Here’s the ThemeParX link where this all came from: http://www.themeparx.com/the-london-resort-paramount-park-london/

Very interesting stuff!
EDIT: I also have the link to the hotels website described in the promotional video: https://londonresort-hotels.com/
 
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