Spaceship hotel gets the green light
A SIX-STAR hotel on the bank of the Thames near Blackfriars was granted planning approval by the City of London on Friday.
The £250m, seven-storey hotel, dubbed The Spaceship, is to be built at Puddle Dock on the site of the existing Mermaid Conference Centre, by Malory Clifford’s development firm Blackfriars Investments.
The Will Alsop-designed hotel will feature 280 rooms, a 500-seat banqueting suite and a rooftop swimming pool. A glass–panelled façade will provide views of the river. The Mermaid was previously used as a theatre, and garnered widespread support when it was threatened with demolition in 2003. It still operates as a conference and concert venue.
Nobody at Blackfriars or the Mermaid Centre was available for comment yesterday.