SegaWorld London was an indoor theme park designed by Sega, and located in London, England that opened on the 7th September, 1996, It lasted three years exactly, shutting down on the 7th September, 1999.
History[]
SegaWorld London was the first Sega theme park outside of Japan, and was Sega's flagship location in Europe.
The Trocadero was originally planned to be the location for a smaller Sega Amusement centre, being the fifth Sega World location in the United KIngdom after Sega World Bournemouth (previously the flagship location for Europe, opened 1993), Sega World Tamworth, Sega World Birmingham and Sega World Wolverhampton (all of which opened somewhere between 1994 and 1996).
Construction began in 1995, cost £45 million and was originally meant to open in the Summer of 1996, but was delayed until 7th September 1996. The opening had a £1.5 million advertisement budget.
Operations[]
The park was open from 10am-12am midnight on Sunday to Thursday and opened on Friday and Saturday from 10am to 1am, and was open every day of the year except 25th December. Private functions were occasionally held, which could alter access to certain amusements.
Visitors would travel from the ground floor to the Reception area on Floor Six using the 'Rocket Escalator', Europe's largest above ground escalator, being greeted by a Sonic the Hedgehog statue spinning the globe on his finger and could travel between floors via smaller escalators.
Arcade cabinets[]
SegaWorld London featured an incredibly large and varied amount of coin-operated arcade cabinets, with over 400 stated to be spread across the entire venue. These included the likes of Virtua Fighter 3, Golden Axe, Manx TT, Virtua Cop and Daytona USA, and some incredibly rare Sega cabinets in the UK such as Sonic the Fighters, Fighting Vipers, Last Bronx and SEGASonic the Hedgehog and rare cabinets such as the R360 deluxe cabinet. For a few weeks after the initial opening, these arcade cabinets were put in Free Play mode, allowing visitors to play to their hearts content for no cost. Alongside Sega arcade machines, other companies also had a host of arcade cabinets such as Tecmo's Dead or Alive and Namco's Ridge Racer.
Attractions[]
As described in the official SegaWorld London pamphlet:
- Aqua Planet: A collision with an underwater colony leads to a 3D interactive motion adventure with a difference - look out for the dangers of the deep while you try to escape!
- AS-1: The wildest car chase of your life! Hold on tight as your driver takes you through the streets of a futuristic city in hot pursuit of an escaped convict - but don't expect your feet to touch the ground!
- Beast in Darkness: Deep in the cavern lives the terrifying Beast, hidden from the outside world. Walk and ride through his lair - but beware of what is around each corner!
- Ghost Hunt: Take a ride through the Haunted House but be on the look out, as all is not what it first appears - paranormal activity has broken out and it is your task to stop it!
- House of Grandish: Check your reactions and test your nerve in this house of strange happenings!
- Mad Bazooka: Hyper Battle Cart: Score points in a Sega-style gladiator arena. A real battle emerges as your Hyper Battle Cart comes under fire from the other contestants - don't be afraid to fight back!
- VR-1: Space Mission: A virtual reality experience that is out of this world - your futuristic challenge is to courier a disk containing vital intelligence away from the planet & from the encircling enemy!
Floors[]
There were seven floors to the venue:
- Ground Floor: Entrance from Coventry Street and Shaftsbury Avenue
- First Floor: McDonalds and Sega Store
- Second Floor: Sports Area, AS-1 Attraction, Mad Bazooka: Hyper Battle Cart Attraction, Information desk, Toilets and Refreshments area
- Third Floor: The Carnival area, Sega Kids area, McDonalds, Ghost Hunt Attraction, House of Grandish Attraction, Information desk and Toilets
- Fourth Floor: Race Track area, Flight Deck area, Aqua Planet Attraction, Space Mission Attraction, Information desk, Toilets and two Refreshment areas
- Fifth Floor: Toilets
- Sixth Floor: Reception area, Combat Zone area, Beast in Darkness Attraction, Sega Saturn area, Telephones and Toilets
Reception and Closure[]
Whilst the variety of arcade machines, Rocket Escalator and VR ride, AS-1, were praised, many of the other attractions failed to generate much interest, and a lack of relation to famous Sega IPs baffled customers despite heavy usage of Sonic the Hedgehog as a mascot around the park.
Queues were said to also be a big turn off for customers after Sega had promised this would not be a problem, and this coupled with what was considered an overpricing of entry tickets (£10 in 1996, which is worth £23.99 in 2025) for what was on offer, and the rides having technical issues and breaking down not long after launch damaged the reputation of SegaWorld London. It was considered a PR disaster overall, damaging the brand and scrapping plans for further Sega Worlds outside of Japan, with only Sega World Sydney as the other notable international Sega World outside of Japan.
After many complaints regarding the price, the arcade cabinets were temporarily placed into Free Play mode to encourage more visitors until December 1996, at which point the price of admission had dropped from £12 and £10 to a mere £2, in order to recuperate losses.
Trivia[]
- The Sonic Statue from the reception was moved into a storage facility after the closure of the park by architecture company Proun. It was thought lost, but was rediscovered in 2019, and restored in 2023 to it's former state. It currently resides in Sega of Europe's offices.
- It was claimed to be the largest indoor theme park in the world at the time of opening.
- Despite the attraction having the name 'Beast' in it, the Beast in Darkness attraction was unrelated to Altered Beast. A common complaint about the attractions was the lack of utilising any Sega IPs with them.
Gallery[]
