Go-ahead for Piccadilly Circus hotel with windowless pods

A "pod" hotel stacking guests into tiny rooms like sardines has been approved by Westminster councillors.

Plans for the rooms, which will be 15 square metres with no window, were scrutinised to see if they posed health risks before being voted through by the planning committee last week.

The development in Piccadilly Circus — inspired by Japanese capsule hotels — has 495 bedrooms over seven floors, all ensuite, and is due to open in 2012.

Corridors will run round the building and rooms are grouped around internal courtyards. Rates are expected to be between £20 and £40 a night.

Wan Yau, director of architects Dexter Moren Associates, said: "The lighting, temperature and even TV channels can be pre-programmed enabling every guest to have a personalised pod' experience. We wanted to create an oasis away from the bustling activity of Westminster."

Property tycoon Asif Aziz's Criterion Capital is behind the development which will also include shops, flats and an arts space in place of the Imaxand Cineworld cinemas.

However, the firm that runs the Apollo and Lyric Theatres has asked Westminster officials to demand that Criterion pays for soundproofing during construction.

Jim Monahan, on behalf of Nimax Theatres, wrote: "Both the Apollo and Lyric theatres are play houses' and being Victorian structures have relatively poor sound insulation."