Celebrities visiting Odeon Leicester Square may have to make way for hotel expansion

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

A Central London hotel wants to build a 10-storey extension on a vacant plot of land which is used by celebrities during movie premieres.

The Assembly Hotel in Charing Cross Road said Odeon Cinema in Leicester Square would still have access to the ground floor, which it uses as a fire escape route.

The West End Property Company, which runs the hotel in the building formerly known as Alhambra House, expects the extension to result in 30 new guest rooms, boosting the overall number of rooms by 25 per cent, a council document shows.

The site sits adjacent to the Assembly Hotel and is currently used by Odeon for refuse storage and parking for celebrities during movie premieres, the same report shows.

A report by the council read: “Overall, the proposal would improve the appearance of the vacant plot at the south of the site through its activation, the provision of additional hotel accommodation.”

It added: “The extension with roof terrace would not have a significant impact on neighbouring residential amenity in terms of noise and overlooking.”

An application on behalf of the West End Property Company to Westminster City council shows the extension will be made up of a mixture of windowed and windowless rooms. The number of guest rooms at the Assembly Hotel will increase to 151.

The Assembly Hotel is an 11-storey building operated by the West End Property Company and is located on the site of Alhambra House, which was built in 1939, the report shows. An application was approved in 2017 to turn the basement, ground and upper floors into a 121-bedroom hotel.

Westminster City councillors will decide whether to approve the application during a planning committee meeting this week.

Pictured top: The site adjacent to Assembly Hotel is currently a vacant plot of land but the owners want to develop it (Picture: Criterion Capital/WCC)