Battersea Power Station to be leisure complex

After years of lying empty, London landmark Battersea Power Station finally looks set to be turned into a leisure and entertainment complex with associated hotels.

The owners, the Hong Kong-based Hwang family, are expected to submit a planning application in the spring to turn the derelict Thames-side property into a leisure and amusement centre, and to build two 500-bedroom hotels on the surrounding land.

It is understood a centre for film studies and a theatre site will also be built.

However, the developer behind the project, Parkview International London (the London office of the Hwang business), faces a long wait before the plans come to fruition.

The power station is a listed building, and therefore any plans for it have to be approved by English Heritage. And the scale of the whole project, covering 32 acres, is such that detailed plans could take up to three or four months just to be approved.

English Heritage admitted that parts of the developers' plans still had to be sorted out, but refused to give details. "The master plan is in its early stages and they need to do some work," said Philip Davies, regional planner for London.

There is unlikely to be any opposition from planners at Wandsworth Borough Council, however. A study carried out by the council in 1992 found that the borough was in need of hotels. "There is a gap," said Brian Bolam, senior planner at Wandsworth. "We won't rule anything out other than a major retail development."

Previous attempts to turn the site into a leisure and amusement park failed after the then owner, businessman John Broome, ran out of money. Mr Broome, who bought the site for £1.5m in 1987, also used to own Alton Towers theme park and Cheshire's Carden Park leisure complex.

Parkview International refused to make any comment on its plans for Battersea.