The Interchange Retail Park - Bedford

Gabriella J.

Good retail park. I would not use the town centre which is dire but here is good. Shame M and S do not have a main line store. Both the Boots and the Next are good stores. The Costa is good and there is a M and S foodhall on the other side.

Good range of stores with free parking but the parking layout is pretty bad.

david J. W. B.

This place delights and frustrates in equal measure. Currently, (spring 2025) the car park is an absolute catastrophe because they appear to be building yet more outlets without building any more parking. To my mind that sort of defeats the whole purpose of having an out of town shopping centre, but apparently rent beats usability in the eyes of the landlord.
Has all of the cheap things that you’ve forgot that you needed and have to dash out to buy on one side, and a bizarre collection of fried food outlets and large furnishing outlets on the other. Perhaps they expect you to go and have a lie down after having a double cheeseburger?
Definitely avoid within a month of Christmas unless you like sitting in traffic jams .

TORQue T.

Interchange Retail Park in Kempston is one of the main shopping destinations in the Bedford area. One of its biggest strengths is the wide range of stores – from popular fashion brands like Next, TK Maxx, and JD Sports to home and lifestyle stores like The Range and Home Bargains. The availability of food outlets (McDonald's, Costa Coffee, Burger King, KFC) also makes it a convenient place to spend a few hours.

The park offers free parking and very good facilities for people with disabilities, including modern "Changing Places" toilets, which are a huge plus for families with children and people with additional needs.

However, recently the park has been undergoing extensive redevelopment and expansion. New retail units are being built, and stores like The Range are planning to increase their space. This is where my concerns begin – the ongoing expansion is consuming a significant number of parking spaces, which used to be one of the biggest advantages of the park. Even now, it can be difficult to find a parking spot during peak hours, and I worry that this problem will only get worse once construction is completed.

Moreover, since large-scale construction work is already underway, I believe it would be a great opportunity to improve access for pedestrians and cyclists. Ideally, a footbridge or tunnel could be built to connect Interchange Retail Park with the back side of Kempston. Naturally, such infrastructure would have to go either over or under the railway tracks, which currently act as a major barrier for direct access. Creating such a connection would make it much easier for local residents to visit the park on foot or by bike, reducing the dependency on cars and significantly boosting customer numbers for the stores.

In summary – Interchange Retail Park is still a very good place for shopping and a quick meal, but its future, especially regarding parking and accessibility, raises some concerns. I hope the park’s management will consider modern, thoughtful transport solutions and fully unlock the site's potential.

Rating: 4/5 – great stores and atmosphere, but smarter planning is needed for the future.

Sukumaran A.

What a tasty food in Nandos
Only thing is always busy and need to wait
Customer service is excellent from all staffs.
Special thanks to guys at the front door and the way they treat the customers are excellent and special thanks to Ogy for giving VIP seats

Martin V. Z.

Be aware. Max parking time. Do not exceed otherwise you will receive a hefty fine. But otherwise if you can shop within the time frame, its nice and convenient

chrisslaterwalker

It's always been a problem to park here at busy times, like every weekend for example. Now they're removing parking spaces to build more shops, which to my mind just looks like landlords' greed for more rent, while refusing to address the parking problem.

Also be aware that different areas of parking have different maximum stay times. Good luxkn finding signs though!

Clearly the people who run this place care nothing about customers and everything about lining their own pockets.

Coo C.

3 hours free parking for customers in this car park.
Lots of parking spaces, I went in the morning so was not busy at all. There are lots of shops including home stores and clothing shops as well as a restaurant and a cafe. For this trip it was ok, but if I come with friends or family specifically for shopping and eating; 3 hours free parking time is really short .

Alex W.

It's always been a pretty mid retail park, but after being hit with a parking fine for parking there for only 25 minutes, that's total, not time spent overstayed, I won't be going back again. With unreasonable parking regulations like that it's impossible to justify going there instead of Milton Keynes or even Rushden lakes. In terms of the actual experience, parking is inadequate, made even worse by them deciding to demolish half of the car park for some reason, it's not especially easy to get to either with it not being uncommon to sit in traffic queues on the way.