about the project

The park is already home to of one of Europe’s highest and most challenging ropes course, an exciting fun walls area and one of the most comprehensive bouldering facilities and coming soon, one of the biggest and best climbing gyms in the UK. In addition to the exciting activities, the project is also bringing a range of environmental and economical benefits to the area. Read on to find out more.

A BRIEF HISTORY

It’s been a long time in the making!

If you’ve been following us from the start, then you’ll know it’s taken a while to get here. 270 Climbing Park may be an exciting new business, based in Bentham but it has it’s roots down the road in Parliament Street in Gloucester, home of one of the oldest climbing gyms in the UK – The Warehouse Climbing Centre. Fast forward some 30-odd years, and a lot of climbing later, and the popular venue has outgrown its home – with no parking and limited scope to expand or develop activities, the owners looked to new premises and a new venture – and 270 Climbing Park was born!

We’ve been hit by several unforseen delays along the way – drainage systems, planning headaches, Covid, adverse weather, great crested newts, spiralling construction and materials costs – all just some of the unexpected delights that have set the project back (and that’s not including the two years wasted at the original site at Westgate Park in Gloucester, but that’s another story altogether!).

Not to be put off though, we’ve kept faith with our vision of creating one of the best climbing gyms and most exciting adventure activity centres in the country.

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LOCAL DEVELOPMENT

The project is regenerating a tired, run-down brownfield site into a new vibrant facility, creating somewhere for people of all ages in Gloucestershire and beyond to meet up and enjoy exciting adventure activities, while also offering a relaxing space to sit back and unwind in the café. We’ve made, or are making, various improvements to the site itself including improving water attenuation to limit the risk of flooding, reducing hard surfacing of the site by a third and we’re making the site more attractive to wildlife by planting more trees and plants than were here originally and creating additional wild habitat areas.

The Park is a private investment, though we are grateful for funding and support received from a EU rural development programme. All of the major investors and Directors are Gloucestershire born & bred so know the importance of being part of the community. We’re working with our neighbours and nearby residents to reduce any negative impact the park may have on the local area such as roads and noise. For instance 270 will have less vehicle traffic than the sites previous use, and though any noise will be fairly minimal for local residents, we have limited our operating hours to ensure we don’t become an early-bird or late-night nuisance.

The Park will create over 50 jobs with positions ranging from admin and office based roles to customer service such as café and party hosts, and of course activity and climbing instructors.

WHAT
ARE THE PHASES?

After so many setbacks causing deadlines to not come to fruition as planned, we’re loathe to tempt fate and be specific about dates and what will open when exactly – they end disappointing us more than anyone!

However, all being well, we see the following elements being built/open in the following phases:

PHASE 1

April 2023 – Saw the opening of our awesome High & Low Ropes and the Activity Tower.

PHASE 2

December 2024 – Saw our Bouldering Gym and Fun Walls climbing area become available. The main bouldering centre (B2) features over 1,000m2 of indoors and outside bouldering surfaces, and dedicated training and warm up areas. The building will also house a dedicated Group Climbing area and our Fun Walls zone will provide an exciting accessible area for children and ‘non-climbers’ to experience vertical challenges.

Phase 2 also saw our Café bar open serving an array of hot and cold food and drinks. Includes indoor and outdoor seating overlooking the park and eventually the main climbing gym outdoor wall. This is part of the refit of the existing front building which is also home to meeting and party rooms, changing rooms, toilets and offices.

PHASE 3

Summer 2025 – All being well, this will see the main climbing arena be opened. With over 2,500m2 of indoor and outdoor climbing surfaces including 16m high walls, IFSC speed climbing walls, 150+ lower-offs and over 200 climbing routes it will be a fantastic venue appealing to both elite athletes and novice climbers alike. If you visit us you can see the scale of teh impressive build! We know it’s a bit of a wait but it will be so worth it!

keep an eye on here and across our socials for the very latest updates.

Hopefully that covers things but if you have any further queries please do not hesitate to get in contact either by our Contact Form or by email on info@270climbing.com

The 270 Climbing Park project has been funded and supported by