Regent Palace hotel gets a reprieve

Plans to demolish a historic hotel which offers some of the cheapest rooms in the capital have been rejected.

Councillors last night refused to let the art deco Regent Palace Hotel, near Piccadilly Circus, be knocked down. It has rooms from ?45 a night and is almost always fully booked.

Its owner, the Crown Estate, wanted to replace it with shops, offices, restaurants and bars while turning the adjacent Café ’oyal, in Regent Street, into a more expensive 131-bedroom hotel.

This was despite a government decision only eight weeks ago to designate the Thirties Regent Palace as a Grade II listed building, giving it protection from development.

Westminster council's planning committee refused the proposal for a number of reasons, including the loss of a "substantial" amount of lowto medium-priced hotel accommodation in central London.

Councillors said the feasibility of retaining the hotel, including options to remodel and reuse its interior, should be fully explored and its retention considered in a revised proposal.