New indoor play experience Nickelodeon Adventure opens its doors at intu Lakeside leisure development

Saturday 15th February, saw the official opening of children’s indoor adventure experience Nickelodeon Adventure, within a new leisure development at intu Lakeside, Thurrock, Essex.

Part of the 175,000 sq ft leisure-led extension to the popular shopping destination, the 2,000 capacity Nickelodeon Adventure Park is the product of a multi-million-pound investment from Spanish operator Parques Reunidos.

The first of its kind in the U.K., Nickelodeon Adventure encapsulates an indoor space of over 50,000 square feet.

The park is built around four themed play zones, each of which features key characters from the Nickelodeon portfolio, including PAW Patrol, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and SpongeBob SquarePants.

A 4D cinema, private hire party suites, costume characters, café and gift store complete the park, creating the perfect Nickelodeon-themed day out for families to enjoy.

It is one of four major leisure anchors within intu Lakeside’s £72 million development which also features a number of food and drink brands. Intu transformed two former car parks into the new area which overlooks intu Lakeside’s 22-acre lake as well as a 7,000 sq ft public realm space.

James Eels, UK director at Parques Reunidos, said: “We are thrilled to be opening Nickelodeon Adventure at Intu Lakeside to join our portfolio of already successful visitor attractions in the UK. We identified a gap in the market for a family themed indoor leisure attraction in this region and were motivated by the challenge of bringing this unique idea to life.”

“Nickelodeon has developed a unique and highly themed visitor attraction and we can’t wait to see the reactions of our guests as they step into Nickelodeon’s cartoons and meet their favourite characters. Working with Intu, our aim is to bring a new range of visitors from across the South East and beyond who will shop and play in one location, whatever the weather.”

Kate Grant, regional managing director at intu, said: “intu Lakeside’s leisure development has created new opportunities for brands like Nickelodeon Adventure Park to flourish here. We’ve transformed one of the country’s most popular shopping centres into a major retail and leisure destination for the south east and this is attracting more visitors to intu Lakeside looking for day out experiences as well as weekends away with friends and family.”

Celebrity mum Frankie Bridge, and The Mummy Diaries favourites Sam and Billie Faiers enjoyed the exclusive launch with their families, alongside parenting influencer, business and industry stakeholders. The attraction then welcomed annual tickets holders and general public.

intu Lakeside was recently named a top-10 shopping centre by data analytics company GlobalData according to research it carried out taking into account the requirements of both tenants and shoppers. The shopping destination ranked 5 from a list of 50 centres, alongside nine other intu shopping centres in the top 20.