A Disneyland-style resort just down the road with rides inspired by the likes of Sherlock, Mission Impossible and Star Trek is not just a dream.

London Paramount is a game-changer for the whole region and a genuine possibility.

Some seemingly random coverage elsewhere in the press lately has sparked fresh interest in the project - so here, from our original report in May 2015, is all the still-current information on the plans from when we caught up with executive director David Testa.

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What is it?

Forget Thorpe Park or Chessington, London Paramount would be a behemoth of a global destination – the first of its kind in this country – built around Swanscombe in north Kent.

It would encompass a world-class theme park, inspired by Paramount, the BBC, Aardman Animations and the British Film Institute’s back catalogue.

So we’re talking about the likes of Mission Impossible, Sherlock, The Italian Job, Star Trek, Spooks, Dr Who, Wallace and Gromit, The Godfather, Shaun the Sheep and a near-infinite amount more.

There will also be a 1,500 seat theatre for ‘West End quality shows’, exhibition, conference and gig space, 5,000 hotel rooms, a cinema and nightclubs, restaurants and bars and a giant water park.

David said: “It’s a global destination theme park.

“If you’re an overseas visitor looking at it from America or from China or from South Africa or wherever, you’ll look at a map and say ‘there’s Disneyland Paris, there’s Paramount London – let’s do both’.

“The unique thing about what we’re doing it the huge amount of British intellectual property that we’re going to get to the park.

“That’s why we’re so pleased to have signed up with the BBC and Aardman Animations. For the British audience in particular, it is a way of making sure it is not just a bit of America dropped into the Kent countryside.”

Oh, and 70 per cent of it is undercover.

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How big is it?

We’re talking Disneyland proportions.

David said: “It’s on that scale and of that quality. You can’t pretend to be Disney but you can aspire to their levels of service and the quality of the theming, the quality of construction, so that’s the target.

“It’s 50 hectares, about 110 acres, of ‘fun stuff’ in the core resort.

“Even in year one, it will take you a good two or three days to see them all.”

The park would attract around 10 million visitors in the first year and around 15 million a year by the fifth, when there’s more on offer. By way of comparison, Thorpe Park pulls in about 2.5million visitors a year.

Paramount will also be open 365 days a year.



Where is it?

It’s in what’s called the Swanscombe Peninsula in north Kent. It’s next to the Thames (so that’s another route in) and close to Dartford and the Ebbsfleet Garden City proposed by the Government in the last budget.

David said: “It is a completely transformative regeneration project utilising what is a contaminated brownfield site at the moment.

“It is not really suited to anything else, certainly not residential which would be very expensive.”

Paramount have been keen not to mess up the archaeology or environment with their plans and intend to create ‘landscape and habitat enhancements’ such as boardwalks along the marshes and helping the wildlife.

The traffic is already a nightmare, how will they cope with that?

As well as access by the river and the train at Ebbsfleet, which is on the HS1 line, proposals have already been drawn up for how not to turn the A2 into a car park.

David said: “A huge amount of our thinking has gone into how we can come up with creative solutions to mitigate the impact of the resort, the main one being that we are going to spend an awful lot of money upgrading the Ebbsfleet junction.

“We’re talking to Highways England and Kent County Council about that primarily.”

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What about jobs?

Inside the park there’ll be around 14,000 jobs and David reckons there will be around another 13,000 more jobs indirectly created by the park. The resort will also be home to a ‘central hub’ for the UK’s creative industry.

They’ll need tonnes of engineers (and builders initially) but also actors, mime artists, HR bods, lawyers, accountants, florists, taxi drivers and everything in between.

David said: “It’s a real small town in itself.  It is bringing that sort of variety. That’s why we believe it is very good for the area.”

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When’s it coming?

It’s likely to get approval, or not, next winter. From there, things start moving quickly, with a grand opening pencilled in for 2021.

You can find out more at londonparamount.info