Chessington World of Adventures closes due to 'burst water main'

One of the UK's biggest theme parks has been forced to close in the middle of school summer holidays due to a burst water main in the area.

Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey said the resort had been forced to shut on Monday, with "revalidations" offered to ticketholders.

In a statement posted on social media, it said: "Due to a water outage in the local area affecting our operations, Chessington is closed today.

"All tickets booked for today will be automatically revalidated under our Return Promise and can be used on a future date. We apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding."

Customers will have to use revalidated tickets within nine months on selected dates.

Thames Water, who supply the theme park's water, apologised to affected customers and "to anyone whose plans to visit Chessington World of Adventures Resort who have been affected following today's outage".

The company said a specialist team had located a burst water main on Leatherhead Road, with repairs ongoing.

Visitors are being turned away at the front gate and are being invited to visit other Merlin Entertainment attractions like Thorpe Park and Legoland instead, with an offer to return to Chessington for free another day.

They are not, however, being offered transport, and visitors are being told that Legoland is very busy.

The outage comes as most parts of England are under amber heat health alerts as highs of 36C are forecast this week - with many areas set for a fifth summer heatwave.

Amber alerts - issued by the UK Health Security Agency - say "significant impacts are likely across health and social care services due to the high temperatures".

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The alerts come after the UK equalled the record number of days with temperatures above 30C across the country this year.

Temperatures of at least 30.6C were recorded on Sunday, bringing the total number of 30C-plus days in 2026 to 34 - matching the UK record set in 1995.

A hosepipe ban has been in place for Thames Water customers since 23 July.

(c) Sky News 2026: Chessington World of Adventures closes due to 'burst water main'