Why is Universal's newest theme park coming to this English town? | In Case You Missed It

Añadido: 2026-04-29

[00:00:00]Strap in. We're going for a ride.

[00:00:04]Universal is coming to Bedford. Yes, Bedford.

[00:00:10]A multi-billion pound theme park and resort dropped into a field in England.

[00:00:20]We're talking rides, themed lands, hotels, the full Hollywood treatment.

[00:00:26]But here's the question. What happens when a US mega resort lands in a quiet English town? From BBC News, I'm Lily May.

[00:00:39]First things first, where is Bedford, I hear you ask? Well, it's an English market town about 50 mi north of London in the county of Bedfordshire with a population of just under 200,000 people.

[00:00:52]Universal already has resorts in Orlando and Hollywood in the US, Osaka in Japan, Beijing in China, and Sentosa in Singapore. They're all pretty exotic locations. So, when Bedford was announced, there was a lot of excitement.

[00:01:06]>> Is the Universal Studios theme park coming to the UK?

[00:01:10]>> Construction starts today.

[00:01:13]>> This is just fantastic news.

[00:01:16]>> I am so excited for this news. It's incredibly exciting as a theme park fan >> and some surprise.

[00:01:23]>> No way the UK is getting a Universal Studio theme park.

[00:01:26]>> I've seen quite a few people confused because they're building this in Bedford.

[00:01:29]>> I mean, who goes to Bedford? But I'm interested in this.

[00:01:32]>> So why Bedford? Well, to be specific, it's actually a place called Chemist Hardwick. Its geography might have a part to play. Bedfordshire.org or described their county as an essential hub for connectivity situated conveniently between London and the Midlands. By train, that's an hour from central London. And the UK government clearly approve of the location, too, as they've granted Universal planning permission by way of special development order to kickstart the project. Right now, the details about the park are very hush hush. But we know one thing's for sure. It's going to be huge. This is an artist's impression of the site, which is planned to be just under 500 acres.

[00:02:15]And it sounds like it's going to need all that space because Universal expect it to attract 8 12 million visitors in its first year alone. After 20 years, they think it could attract 12 million visitors per year, ranking it among the top 10 most visited theme parks in the world. Impressive. So, what's happening on the site right now?

[00:02:37]>> Hello, Lily. Uh, just give me 2 minutes cuz I've got to traverse this plank first. I'll call you back.

[00:02:44]>> Right. Okay. While he traverses that plank, I'll explain why I called him.

[00:02:49]Dan is a creator who lives basically next door to the site. He's been updating his followers on the progress since the news broke. So, I sent him a list of questions.

[00:02:59]>> Hello, Lily. Uh, funnily enough, I'm actually walking directly towards the site of the new Universal Studios theme park coming to Kempston Bedford. I'm literally here right now and that behind me is where the theme park is going to be. The history of this site is very interesting indeed because it used to be many years ago the former brick works here in Kempston, a very integral part of the brick making industry. And once that closed, it was basically left as just completely muddy fields until a few projects were lined up here and there.

[00:03:33]Maybe something will come to this field.

[00:03:35]Nothing ever happened. They all fell through until Universal Studios came and they're clearly underway building it.

[00:03:42]There is a lot going on behind me and um I'm going to have to show you what's happening. So, if I zoom on in for you right here, as you can see, loads of fencing all along the entire site of this future theme park. And then we have loads of construction machinery that's actually working right now, as you can see. Very exciting. Proves they are well underway with this project. The transportation around this site is absolutely amazing and it's perfect for what they want to do and achieve with this theme park. They've got two railway lines that run very close to the site.

[00:04:13]They're in fact building a brand new railway station on site and they'll also be using roads from the A421. There is going to be so many different ways of getting here from London and just everywhere around the country.

[00:04:26]>> Okay, Dan is clearly excited about this and he's not alone. There's been a lot of online chat and speculation about what's actually going to be there.

[00:04:33]>> Yeah, see that's the interesting part now is what rides are we going to see in this theme park? What films of Universals are they going to make into roller coasters? We don't know yet. Of course, we had that one concept art released from the original announcement.

[00:04:48]And as amazing as it looks, it will probably change a lot, but from that we can sort of speculate around what themes we might be getting such as Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, maybe even the likes of Shrek, Lord of the Rings has been mentioned a lot, and even some British IPs like James Bond and Paddington. That would be amazing to see here in Bedford. Of course, they're well known for the likes of Nintendo World or Harry Potter. We don't know if we're going to get that. We don't even know if we're going to get any of the ones I just mentioned at all.

[00:05:16]>> Gonna pause you there, Dan. I do have some inside information about this. My colleague Danny Fbrook has reported extensively on the plans for Universal in Bedford. He spoke to an unnamed source close to the project who insisted contracts have been signed in reference to blockbuster films appearing at the park. But you didn't hear that from me.

[00:05:38]Okay, I'm Porse. Hello again. I'm down here at the other end of the site now.

[00:05:43]Uh there's still quite a lot going on, which is why I'm a bit quieter. You can hear how much is happening. There is a pretty main road right there, and there's a lot of road works going on.

[00:05:52]So, it's very busy down here. Tree clearances have been happening. There's a lot of trees missing now. Opening up this site even more, so we'll be able to see it even better. And uh loads of sight offices as well where they are going to work from whilst this entire theme park is built on the other side of the road. I'm going to be here a lot being local. Oh, I'm so excited.

[00:06:12]>> So, it's great news for theme park enthusiasts and from what we've heard so far, it does sound like there's a lot to be excited about. But when a project this big comes to town, it obviously raises important questions. Who benefits? And can existing infrastructure cope? Take housing for example. Millions of visitors and tens of thousands of new jobs will also mean an increased demand for property. More demand for property often means higher prices. Campaign groups like Generation Rent have warned this might push prices up. Homeowners could make money by using their home as short-term let, but more holiday homes could also mean reduced availability for local renters. And then there's, well, the sewage. Yep, the poo.

[00:07:02]8 million more people are going to be using the toilet every year and Bedford Water Treatment Center say they'll not be able to cope without a major upgrade.

[00:07:12]Right now they process about 35 million L of waste water a day. That's about 14 Olympic size swimming pools. Universal could add more than 10.6 million L a day. On top of that, the regulator offwalt have already granted permission for a 70 to 80 million pound expansion funded through a rise in customer bills.

[00:07:36]Anglen Water say Universal will pay their fair share of development costs.

[00:07:41]But with the park opening in 5 years, that timeline is pretty tight. Let's ring Olly Man. He's the host of a BBC podcast all about the project and spent months chatting to people living there when it was first announced.

[00:07:55]You know, it's interesting making this show. I I I you know, it was a show for the BBC. I wanted to be absolutely sure that we were reflecting genuine concerns from people who didn't want this park to be there. It's not a piece of marketing and advertising for the fact that Universal was coming to town. And so, we deliberately set out and invited people on air to tell us if they were not keen on this new development coming to Bedford. They didn't want it here for whatever reason. They don't like a big American company coming over to their town. They don't want to ruin the landscape in this beautiful part of the world they live in. Um, and what was extraordinary was the stats that Universal put out there themselves, which is that they'd done an initial consultation whereby 90% of the people pled were enthusiastic was more or less what was reflected when we walked around. Walking around areas like Steuart B and Wixoms, areas that are going to be completely transformed by the arrival of this thing in their backyard. There was some skepticism that the promises would be delivered, but there was, I would say, an enthusiasm which did tally with around 90% of the people we spoke to, which was if they deliver what they say they're going to, then this is definitely an improvement for the area and we're really excited to have it here, which was really surprising to see. And there's genuine enthusiasm from everyone we spoke to.

[00:09:07]And for people as well who have bought properties in the area where you might think they're going to be thinking this is going to clog up my driveway. This is going to be a problem for the train actually generally their feeling was this is going to put up the value of my property and I can offer it up as an Airbnb when I'm not living in it and this is going to be somewhere for my kids to work. So almost everyone that we spoke to was cautiously enthusiastic about this. There were some people we spoke to who had concerns about access for children with special needs and people with disabilities. You know, what's the point of building this huge thing in my backyard if I can't go to it? My family can't use it. Um, but again, looking at the record that Universal has in Florida where their disabled access for all of their rides and entertainments is really incredible.

[00:09:52]I mean, they will stop a ride to get wheelchairs on and off in a way that everyone else on the ride doesn't even notice. I think that can easily be translated over to the UK. And actually again the answer is it's it not only will they be accommodated, I think it's quite likely it will be the best experience for people with special needs and disabilities out of any of the UK theme parks. So yeah, quite a lot of cautious optimism. I'd say >> from your point of view, what are some of the benefits of bringing Universal to Bedford Share?

[00:10:20]>> This is an enormous economic investment into the home counties. It's going to create tens of thousands of jobs. It's going to put Bedford on the map as an international tourist destination for local residents. It's going to mean an expanded railway station and new slip roads. It's going to mean British employees trained in US style customer service which they can then move on to in other companies. And it's going to mean an attraction that for theme park nerds is something that we've been crying out for for decades. A theme park in England that is finally as good as the ones in France and Spain and Germany.

[00:10:52]>> Totally. And you yourself are a big theme park fan. Uh you've been to Universal in Orlando. Do you think Bedford Shear has got what it takes to be the next Orlando?

[00:11:04]You know, there's a certain uh laughter that comes when you tell people that Bedford is the next Orlando. Um but you have to remember that 60 years ago, Orlando was the next Orlando. It was just swamps and citrus groves and amazing nature there, alligators and stuff. But, you know, for tourists, virtually nothing. Almost. You'd go as far to say an inhospitable place to go.

[00:11:28]Um, and now it is the number one most visited destination in the United States. And that happened purely because the Walt Disney Company decided to put Disney World there and then everything sprung out afterwards. And Universal's obviously been part of that story in Orlando. And them coming to Bedfordshire shouldn't just be seen as them building a theme park. This they've talked about in terms of being a 100-year plan and it is quite conceivable to imagine a 100 years hence this being not just one theme park but three or four parks owned by whatever the Universal company is then with attendant hotels and tourist facilities, restaurants, leisure activities, transport links. I think this really could um put Bedford Cheer on the map, not just in the UK, for people who want a world-class theme park somewhere in England, but actually for people all across Europe who might start to see Bedford Cheer as a holiday destination or at least the home counties for theme park sort of film nerds where you do one day stop off at the Harry Potter Studio Tour also in Hartford Cheer and one day in Bedford Cheer at the Universal Park and I think that's a very realistic prospect within the next 6 years.

[00:12:41]>> Okay, so we'll have Universal in Bedfordshire, Harry Potter Studios in Hertfordshire, and if we zoom out a little further, we can see there's a lot going on in the area. Currently, within 90 minutes of each other, you've got Legoland Windsor, Thor Park, Chestington World of Adventures, and Pton's Park, home to Peppa Pig Icon. Not only is Universal coming to Bedford, there's also plans for a liveaction history park near Bista, complete with medieval battles and plans for a huge indoor water park which have been submitted near Hampshire. So, is the Southeast of England becoming a theme park hub? It kind of is. Who needs Florida? Right, I've got to go. But if you want to read more about the Universal Bedford plans, the BBC has done loads of reporting on it. Just head to the BBC News app or website to read more from me. That's all for now. Thanks for watching.