News

West End offices and former police station to make way for new hotels

News

Dominic Plaskota

17 October 2024

Hotels, Leisure

London, West End

Plans to add 294 bedrooms to the West End’s burgeoning hotel sector have been approved unanimously through the sign-off of two conversion projects.

The proposals for 61-71 Victoria Street and 202-206 Buckingham Palace Road, both SW1, made by developer FM Construction and Maintenance and hotel operator The Other House respectively, will create two new hotels.

The 61-71 Victoria Street scheme will provide an eight-storey hotel with 88 bedrooms. A similar scheme on the site was approved in 2019, which provided consent for the loss of the vacant 31,000 sq ft office space, 3,150 sq ft of retail and 5,640 sq ft of F&B on site. FM Construction later withdrew a further application to demolish and rebuild after being advised that total demolition would raise sustainability concerns, according to the planning officer’s report.

Planning officers justified the loss of office space in their report when recommending the scheme for approval, saying that at the time of the 2019 consent there was no land use objection regarding the loss of offices under the City Plan, even though the applicant had “not provided evidence to indicate that the continued use of this part of the site for offices (or an appropriate alternative use) has no interest”.

The new proposal was deemed an improvement on the 2019 plans and approved unanimously.

The 202-206 Buckingham Palace Road proposal will see the redevelopment of the former Belgravia Police Station, providing 206 bedrooms in the 145,000 sq ft, seven-storey building.

The development will join The Other House’s portfolio of hotels in South Kensington and a further hotel due to open in Covent Garden in 2025.

Councillors described the loss of light caused by the scheme as “regrettable” but outweighed by the benefits to the community, leading planning committee chair Ruth Bush to say she could not see any possible grounds for refusal. Further discussion resulted in a limiting of the operational hours of the restaurants in the hotel, before the committee unanimously approved the scheme.

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Hotels, Westminster City Council

Plans to add 294 bedrooms to the West End’s burgeoning hotel sector have been approved unanimously through the sign-off of two conversion projects. The proposals for 61-71 Victoria Street and 202-206 Buckingham Palace Road, both SW1, made by developer FM Construction and Maintenance and hotel operator The Other House respectively, will create two new hotels. The 61-71 Victoria Street scheme will provide an eight-storey hotel with 88 bedrooms. A similar scheme on the site was approved in 2019, which provided consent for the loss of the vacant 31,000 sq ft office space, 3,150 sq ft of retail and 5,640 sq ft of F&B on site. FM Construction later withdrew a further application to demolish and rebuild after being advised that total demolition would raise sustainability concerns, according to the planning officer’s report. Planning officers justified the loss of office space in their report when recommending the scheme for approval, saying that at the time of the 2019 consent there was no land use objection regarding the loss of offices under the City Plan, even though the applicant had “not provided evidence to indicate that the continued use of this part of the site for offices (or an appropriate alternative use) has no interest”. The new proposal was deemed an improvement on the 2019 plans and approved unanimously. The 202-206 Buckingham Palace Road proposal will see the redevelopment of the former Belgravia Police Station, providing 206 bedrooms in the 145,000 sq ft, seven-storey building. The development will join The Other House’s portfolio of hotels in South Kensington and a further hotel due to open in Covent Garden in 2025. Councillors described the loss of light caused by the scheme as “regrettable” but outweighed by the benefits to the community, leading planning committee chair Ruth Bush to say she could not see any possible grounds for refusal. Further discussion resulted in a limiting of the operational hours of the restaurants in the hotel, before the committee unanimously approved the scheme.