Tooting Constitutional Club: Plans for new 221-room 'apart-hotel' to be decided on

The Wandsworth conservation area advisory committee will meet on March 6 after an application was submitted for the asset of community value (ACV) in Tooting High Street on January 18.

Developers London Hotel Group (LHG) seek to knock down existing buildings and redevelop it as part of a new scheme, up to five storeys, which would have 221 ‘apart-hotel’ rooms and the involve the rebuild of Tooting Constitutional Club as café.

A report by RGP, on behalf of LHG, said: “The development scheme, to which this travel plan pertains, will redevelop the site to provide a 221-room apart-hotel which includes four basement levels and an associated restaurant or café bar at the ground floor level, ancillary to the hotel use.

“The consented D2 community use at the site would also be retained as part of the proposals.

“The apart-hotel will cater for medium duration business and leisure trade whereby small groups or families may be attracted to stay for a period of a few nights or a week’s duration depending on their widely different needs.

“To encourage longer stays by guests, food preparation facilities will be provided within the rooms.”

The apart-hotel would be building-free but there are disabled parking spaces nearby and 12 long-stay cycle parking spaces and five ‘Sheffield’-style cycle stands – or 10 short-stay spaces – will be provided.

A previous plan for Tooting Constitutional Club, which was established in 1917 as a ‘working man’s club’, received ‘firm opposition’ from councillors in May 2015 when proposals to build 46 flats and commercials units up to seven storeys high were rebuffed.

The same property developer who appealed the decision failed in their bid to overturn the verdict months later that August, before the council offered it to be bought by members of the public.

Currently the application has received 12 comments, 10 of which are objections at the time of writing.