SegaWorld London

SegaWorld London was an indoor theme park located inside the London Trocadero in London, England. The venue opened up in September 1996 and operated as a joint-venture between Chorion, the owners of the Trocadero, and Sega. At 110,000 square feet, it was claimed to be the largest indoor theme park in the world. It was Sega's flagship venue in Europe and the first Sega theme park outside of Japan. The venue struggled with attendance which led to an early exit from Sega in the joint-venture, leading to its owners renting the space to the owners of the nearby Funland arcade which merged with its existing branch nearby, and remained as such until its permanent closure in 2011. During the early 1990s, Sega grew exponentially, as a result of a successful reinvigoration of their once-fledgling Sega Genesis home console in the United States and Europe and the popularity of the Sonic the Hedgehog mascot character. Additionally, an initially lucrative stream of income had been created by the openings of a number of family-oriented amusement facilities under the name of Sega World, as part of an ongoing initiative by the company to clean up arcades. Starting out in Japan and Taiwan, Sega Worlds eventually appeared in the United Kingdom after the buyout of arcade machine distributors Deith Leisure by Sega's European management. At the same time, the London Trocadero complex, relaunched the previous decade as a shopping centre, was receiving a boost from numerous unrelated video gaming facilities, including the popular Funland amusement arcade, however its upper floors were still largely vacant after the closure of its previous 1960s tenants. The Trocadero was originally intended to be the site for a smaller scale Sega amusement venue, scheduled to open shortly after the launch of the then-flagship Sega World centre in Bournemouth during July 1993. This was aborted, with Sega instead opening venues in other London locations like Colindale's Oriental City shopping centre in the following months.