Artist's impression of the pod hotel - Dexter Moren Associates

London's Trocadero looks set to become a "pod" hotel

13th January 2010, 11:51am

The trend for all things miniature is set to hit the West End as plans for a new hotel at the Trocadero with bijous 'pod style' rooms have been given the go ahead.

Westminster Council has granted permission for a 495-bedroom hotel with rooms taking their inspiration from Japanese capsule hotels and whose designs are based upon first class air cabins.

The hotel's en -suite rooms will measure just 12 m2 to 17 m2, and will occupy part of the second to seventh floors in the Grade II-listed building in Piccadilly Circus

Being described as London's answer to the fashionable Pod Hotel in New York, the hotel is set to join a series of major hotel developments occurring in Westminster in the run up to the London Olympics which will transform the district with its world famous attractions and ensure it can cope with the millions of extra people who will flock to it in 2012.

Cllr Alastair Moss, chairman of Westminster Council's Planning and City Development Committee, said: "We welcome this exciting new development for the West End. The designs for this hotel are a good example that bigger does not equal better, and take into account that when people come to central London with its vast array of attractions and things to do they do not always need or want a large room.

"With some of the best shopping streets in the world, world renowned museums and galleries, a booming Theatreland and some of the best bars and restaurants in the UK on their doorstep most of the 200 million people who visit the West End every year would rather go out than stay in."

The redevelopment will see the upper floors of the Trocadero brought back into use for the first time since they housed the UK's biggest indoor theme park Segaworld.

Alongside its rooms the hotel will also boast a breakfast bar and a guest lounge with a terraced area on the eighth floor.

Cllr Moss added: "The design world at present is obsessed with all things miniature from iPod nanos to tiny mobile phones and with this development Westminster, as ever, is staying in vogue."

When the Olympics comes to London in 2012 The International Olympic Committee will stay in Westminster, and with Westminster being at the hub of the Olympic Route Network, which starts in Park Lane and runs to the Olympic Park in Newham, many of the events' visitors will want to stay here, as at the moment 98 per cent of the 30 million annual visitors to the capital come to Westminster.

To prepare for this and despite the credit crunch thousands of rooms are set to be added to the West End's hotel portfolio.

Some of the hotels set to be added to the area look likely to include a 194 bedroom hotel at the Swiss Centre, the transformation of the former Playboy club at 45 Park Lane into a 48 room hotel and the Manchester Square Fire Station building in Chiltern Street looks set to be converted into a 33 room boutique hotel.

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