Cotswolds Designer Outlet, Tewkesbury: Shops, Parking, Directions and Opening Times

Britain's only major new shopping destination of 2025, built from scratch on farmland 400 metres from the M5 at Tewkesbury and opened at 10am on Wednesday 16 July 2025 with 98% of it already let. It is not finished: phase two has planning consent and has not been built. Here is what the operator publishes, the five different floor areas that have been printed for phase one, and why the opening hours on this page come from three of the shops rather than from the centre.

Last checked 9 September 2026 · Opening times and store lists change — check with the centre before travelling.

The Cotswolds Designer Outlet stands on Platinum Drive at Ashchurch, on the Tewkesbury side of junction 9 of the M5. It is new — properly new, not a rebranded 1990s scheme — and it is the only major retail destination to have opened anywhere in the United Kingdom in 2025. It took its first shoppers at 10am on Wednesday 16 July 2025, and its own news page marked a first birthday on 3 July 2026.

Start with the date, because one widely-cited source will send you wrong. The Retail Bulletin's piece announcing that the outlet had opened to the public sits at a web address ending 18-07-2025, and that is the date the article was published, not the date the doors opened. The opening was two days earlier. We are confident about 16 July because three independent parties give it: the local title SoGlos, which had the date first, NationalWorld, and — best of all — Bouygues UK, the main contractor, whose own project page records the handover of the completed building on 16 July 2025. When the builder hands over on the same day the public walks in, the date is settled.

The second thing to know is that the place is only half-built. What is open is phase one. Phase two — reserved matters approved by Tewkesbury Borough Council on 24 January 2025, to be built on part of the existing car park — has not started, has no announced contractor and has no opening date. In April 2025 the developer and the operating partner said they expected to bring it forward earlier than planned. Nothing has been published about it since, and the operator's own news feed, which we read in full on 9 September 2026, does not mention it once. We are not telling you it is imminent and we are not telling you it is dead.

The website is unusually good and has one unusual hole. cotswoldsdesigneroutlet.com is the right address and it is properly server-rendered: getting here, guest services, accessibility, the shuttle bus, the dog policy, the family page, the store directory and the news feed all load and can be read. But the opening-times page will not give up the ordinary Monday-to-Saturday table. We fetched it twice, on two different prompts, and got the bank-holiday row, the restaurant row, the Sunday note and the quiet hour every time — and never the core hours. The per-store pages return 404. So the headline hours below are the shops' own, not the centre's, and we say which shop each came from.

For an asset of this scale to be 98% let on the day of opening is unprecedented, and really demonstrates the strength of demand from brands for space at this site.

The essentials

Opening times

Everything above was checked on 9 September 2026, and the weekday and Saturday rows are not the centre speaking. The operator's own opening-times page was fetched twice with different questions and returned the bank-holiday row, the Sunday note, the restaurant times and the quiet hour both times — and never the ordinary Monday-to-Saturday table. The frequently-asked-questions page simply links back to it. The individual store pages on the operator's site return 404. So there is no page anywhere on cotswoldsdesigneroutlet.com, that we could read, on which the centre states its own trading hours.

We got them from the tenants instead, and two of the three agree to the minute. adidas, in unit 7/8, and Mountain Warehouse, in units 59 to 60, both publish Monday to Friday 9.30am to 7pm, Saturday 9am to 7pm and Sunday 10.30am to 4.30pm on their own store-finder pages. Two national retailers agreeing exactly, and matching the operator on the Sunday, is good enough to print.

The Sunday is the interesting one. Crew Clothing, in unit 25, publishes Sunday 10.30am to 6pm — later than the other two and later than the operator's own "10.30am – 4.30pm", which the operator flags "some stores only". That is the clue: large shops in England and Wales are limited to six continuous hours of Sunday trading and small ones are not, so a big unit closing at half four and a small one at six is what you would expect. We print that as the pattern, not as a rule we have verified here. For a Sunday trip aimed at one shop, check that shop.

Bank holidays are contradicted — 9.30am to 7pm from the operator for Monday 31 August 2026, 9.30am to 6pm from Mountain Warehouse for bank holidays generally — and there is no Christmas or New Year schedule at all, fourteen months after opening. The only festive information anywhere is Mountain Warehouse's note that it closes on Christmas Day. Ring 01684 645970 before travelling in late December.

Getting there

By road — and here the junction is safe to print

Use GL20 7FY. Unusually, we can also give you the junction with confidence, because the operator publishes it on three separate pages and the developer publishes it on a fourth. The homepage says the outlet is "Just 2 mins from Jct 9" of the M5 and, more precisely, "Just 400m from the Junction 9 M5 slip road". The getting-here page describes it as "just a short car ride from Tewkesbury on the A46, and conveniently located moments from Junction 9 of the M5". Robert Hitchins, the developer, describes the site independently as adjacent to M5 junction 9 and the A46 trunk road.

Four hundred metres from a slip road is about as close as a retail destination in Britain gets, and it explains the business case: the outlet sits on the Bristol-to-Birmingham corridor and pitches itself as an alternative to a motorway service area. One thing we flag rather than describe: Gloucestershire County Council has a live transport scheme for M5 junction 9 and the A46 at Ashchurch, which we have not read.

Parking

Free, with no published time limit and no published height restriction. The operator says "over 1,000 free spaces"; SoGlos counted 908 plus 134 overflow when it visited at opening; the planning documents reported by Punchline said 1,100. The count includes 30 accessible bays, parent-and-child spaces and free designated coach parking. Overflow parking runs along Platinum Drive to the west, towards Dobbies. The car parks are lettered — A and C are both referred to by name on the operator's own pages. No enforcement contractor is named anywhere.

The car park position is not settled. A temporary 364-space car park was approved for five years from the phase one opening, and a separate 607-space car park on grazing land to the south was still awaiting a committee decision in January 2025 — we could not find out what happened to it, the local news site that reported the decision having refused to open for us. And phase two, when it comes, is to be built on part of the existing car park.

By train — genuinely good, and the operator publishes the walk

Ashchurch for Tewkesbury station is 500 metres away, a seven-minute walk. That is the operator's own figure, and it gives both the distance and the time, which most shopping centre operators do not manage. For an out-of-town outlet village this is an exceptionally good rail position — most of them are unreachable without a car. No train frequency is published by anyone we read, so check your operator before relying on it.

By bus and by shuttle

The local number 71 bus stops less than 500 metres from the entrance, per the operator. No bus company and no frequency are published.

There is also a dedicated shuttle bus, and it is a good deal. Its own page says it runs seven days a week, every 30 minutes, from half an hour before the centre opens until half an hour after it closes, stopping at Fiddington Fields (not Sundays), The Crescent outside Tewkesbury Abbey, the railway station and Loverose Way through car park C. Fares are £2 single, £3 return, free to and from the railway station; free on Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays for anyone spending over £20 on production of a receipt at Guest Services; English local authority bus passes accepted.

The operator contradicts itself on how often it runs. The shuttle page says seven days a week; the FAQ page on the same website calls it "a weekend and bank holiday shuttle service", as did NationalWorld in July 2025. No operating company is named and no timetable published — the operator points at bustimes.org. If the shuttle is the plan, telephone first.

By bike

Covered Sheffield-style racks sit next to Five Guys by the eastern entrance, and in car park A just south of Levi's. The operator names both locations, which is more than most sites do.

The shops

We counted the operator's own directory on 9 September 2026: 47 shops and eight cafés and restaurants. The Patisserie Box appears in both lists, so that is 54 distinct businesses trading.

The line-up

Fashion and footwear: BOSS, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Reiss, Hobbs, Guess, French Connection, Ben Sherman, Crew Clothing, Jack & Jones, Levi's, Skopes, Dune, Skechers, Pavers, Timberland and Chapelle.

Sport and outdoor: adidas, PUMA, Under Armour, Sweaty Betty, The North Face, Merrell, Regatta, Craghoppers, Mountain Warehouse, Animal, Saltrock and Weird Fish.

Home, beauty and gifts: M&S Outlet, ProCook, Tefal, Bedeck, Yankee Candle, Molton Brown, Rituals, The Body Shop, The Cosmetics Company Store, Beauty Outlet, The Perfume Shop, Holland & Barrett, Clintons, Samsonite, Lindt, Cadbury and Sunglass Hut.

Eating: Five Guys, wagamama, Zizzi, Pret A Manger, Caffè Nero, 200 Degrees, and two local independents that were deliberately brought in at launch — KNEAD Bakery and The Patisserie Box.

What has arrived, dated

Sunglass Hut opened on or about 15 May 2026. The operator announced it on its own news page that day and Completely Retail reported it the same day, alongside a further unnamed retailer due in summer 2026 which we have not been able to identify. Completely Retail's piece described the outlet as nearing full occupancy within a year of opening.

Sixteen names on today's directory have no dated arrival announcement at all — Animal, Chapelle, Clintons, Craghoppers, Molton Brown, Mountain Warehouse, Pavers, Saltrock, Samsonite, Skopes, Weird Fish, Yankee Candle, The Cosmetics Company Store, The Body Shop, Holland & Barrett and Jack & Jones. None of them appear on any opening-day list we found, so they all arrived at some point after July 2025. Nobody has published when.

What has gone — two names, no dates

Denby was listed among the homeware brands opening with the centre in July 2025, and Denby's own outlet-stores pages carry a Cotswolds store. It is not on the operator's directory today. In between, Denby's own website records that joint administrators from FRP Advisory were appointed over several Denby companies on 31 March 2026, with website operations passing to a new entity on 4 June 2026. No closure of the Tewkesbury store has ever been announced by anyone, so we cannot give you a date and we are not going to imply one.

Radley is named in the opening line-up by both Bouygues UK and Retail Times and is likewise absent now — again no announcement, no date, no explanation anywhere. For a fourteen-month-old scheme that is a very short casualty list, and it is worth saying so.

The garden centre is not part of the outlet

A Dobbies of 74,000 sq ft, with its own soft play and a 10,000 sq ft restaurant, stands at the entrance on Platinum Drive. Bisnow reports that Robert Hitchins developed that too, which is why the two schemes are entangled in the planning record — the 2016 application was for an outlet and a garden centre. But Dobbies is a separate building with a separate occupier and its own trading hours. It is not in the store directory, it is not in the 136,000 sq ft, and — see below — it is where the Changing Places toilet is.

Useful to know

Accessibility, which is better than most

The site is step-free throughout, being new and on one level, with 30 accessible bays. Mobility aids are free and can be pre-booked — scooters, PowerChairs, self-propelled and transit wheelchairs — with same-day requests taken on 01684 645970. Hearing loop induction systems are described as available at key locations, support and guide dogs are welcome throughout, and there is a quiet room at Guest Services, used for prayer and by visitors who need to step out of the noise.

One detail we have not seen at any other British shopping destination: the operator's accessibility page states that adidas here sells single shoes at 50% off for people with limb differences.

The one thing to plan around: the Changing Places toilet is inside Dobbies, not inside the outlet. That is the operator's own wording. It means a different building, a different entrance and different opening hours, so if you need one, check what time Dobbies opens and closes rather than what time the outlet does.

Quiet hour

Every Wednesday, 10am to 11am. The operator runs it weekly and publishes it on two of its own pages. If you want the place calm, that is the hour, and mid-morning midweek is the quietest the car park will be anyway.

Families

A free, air-conditioned indoor soft play, an outdoor playground, picnic spaces, family toilets, baby changing, and a dedicated feeding area in the Family Room in the toilet block between adidas and centre management. Pram access is step-free and there are parent-and-child spaces. The operator openly pitches itself at people breaking a long M5 drive with children as a better stop than a service station — with the junction 400 metres away, that is a fair pitch.

Dogs

Dogs are welcome and the policy is spelled out properly, which is rare. "Dogs must be kept on a lead at all times while visiting." Most shops admit them and display a logo at the door; the operator names the exceptions, which take assistance dogs only: Lindt, Cadbury, Holland & Barrett, M&S Outlet, Five Guys and wagamama. Every café and restaurant takes dogs outdoors; Zizzi is the only one that takes them indoors. Water bowls are placed across the centre, and there is an annual "Four Legged Fortnight", which ran in April 2026. Opening coverage in July 2025 mentioned a "dog stick library" and a "wild walk" meadow; neither appears on the operator's current dog page, so treat those as launch press rather than facilities to count on.

The practical bits

Guest Services sits in the north-east corner between Cadbury and the play areas, open seven days a week, and holds lost property. Free wi-fi covers the public areas, there is a cash machine indoors near the soft play, personal photography is permitted at the security team's discretion, and Club Cotswolds is the loyalty scheme.

There is still no gift card. The frequently-asked-questions page said "coming soon" when we read it on 9 September 2026 — fourteen months after opening. If you were planning to buy one, you cannot.

If you are comparing outlets

The nearest comparable destinations are Gloucester Quays, about twenty minutes south down the M5 and a very different proposition — a waterside outlet in a historic dock rather than a purpose-built village — and Clarks Village at Street in Somerset, the oldest outlet village in the country. Going the other way, Designer Outlet West Midlands at Cannock is the newest scheme of comparable type in the Midlands, and Swindon Designer Outlet sits inside a listed railway works about an hour to the south-east.

How it got here

The scheme was a long time coming and the early paperwork is the part we can tell you least about. Tewkesbury borough councillors backed a factory outlet and garden centre at Ashchurch in March 2016; we know that only from the headline of the developer's own blog post of 17 March 2016 and a trade headline of the same period, and neither page would open for us — a 404 and a server error. So we have no application reference and no date for the outline consent, only the fact that reserved matters were later approved against it. A reserved-matters application for outlet and garden centre followed on 24 April 2019, again known from a headline whose article body the developer's site would not serve.

Construction began in November 2023, Bouygues UK building to a Roberts Limbrick design, target spring 2025. By July 2024 Punchline reported the job nine months in with 90% of the steel frame up and 75% of the space let. The target slipped a season.

The letting was the story. A month before opening, Retail Times reported 97% exchanged with 52 brands across 132,700 sq ft; on the day it was 98% let. Christine Grace of Multi-Realm called it unprecedented twice, a month apart, at each figure in turn — which is a leasing director doing a leasing director's job, but the number really was unusual for a speculative retail development in a decade when almost nobody was building any.

Who owns it, plainly. Robert Hitchins Ltd is a Gloucestershire family development company, and here it is not merely the developer: Across describes the scheme as funded and developed by Hitchins, europe-re and Bisnow call it investor and developer, and Retail Times lists it as developer and owner. It sits on the company's own commercial portfolio page — where a developer lists what it holds rather than what it has sold — and no sale has ever been reported. The ownership vehicle, any share split and any valuation are not published, and Companies House was unavailable to us on this run.

Multi-Realm is the operator, not the owner, and the name changed recently enough to confuse things. Realm was set up in 2002 as an independent asset and property management business; in April 2024 Multi Corporation took a majority shareholding and the combined business became Multi-Realm. Anything written about this scheme before spring 2024 calls the manager "Realm" and anything after calls it "Multi-Realm". Same people.

Phase two is the open question. Reserved matters for 3,621 sq m of further retail were approved by delegated decision on 24 January 2025, the planning officer finding an acceptable layout, appearance, access and landscaping in accordance with the outline consent. The trade press consistently describes phase two as "about 50,000 sq ft" and around 40 further units, which does not match the 3,621 sq m — roughly 39,000 sq ft — in the decision, and nobody explains the gap. It is to be built on part of the existing car park, which is presumably why a temporary 364-space car park was consented for five years and a further 607-space car park was applied for on grazing land to the south. In April 2025 Punchline reported that Hitchins and Multi-Realm expected to bring phase two forward earlier than originally planned. Since then: nothing. No start on site, no contractor, no date, and not a word about it in fourteen months of the operator's own news feed.

SoGlos's first look described the architecture as "a blend of traditional Cotswolds architecture sprinkled with contemporary features" — a fair account of buff stone and pitched roofs at retail-park scale. The build carried some environmental credentials, but the much-quoted 53% energy saving refers to the site cabins during construction, not the finished buildings, and no BREEAM rating has been published.