Hotel chain Travelodge is hoping to open a hotel on the vacant land between Woolwich Road and the Greenwich Shopping Park.
Greenwich Council has received a planning application proposing a 120-bed hotel on the site, opposite the junction with Victoria Way, along with a food store and cafe.
The land has been empty for a decade following the demolition of a retail and industrial estate on the site, which had been earmarked for use in the Greenwich Waterfront Transit scheme, scrapped by Boris Johnson in 2009.
Developers say the project will create up to 126 jobs, and will also help boost local pubs and restaurants.
The scheme is backed by the owners of the Greenwich Shopping Park, and completes their development, with the cafe aimed at its customers.
It also takes advantage of a reorganisation in planning permissions for some of Charlton’s big retail barns, some of which are now nearly 30 years old and approaching the end of their lives.
The food store will replace the Lidl on Bugsbys Way, and would be run by “a local convenience store operator”.
Lidl’s building, which dates back to the mid-1980s, will be replaced with a new Wickes DIY store, which will move from its present site on Gallions Road.
We’ve rummaged in the wasteland here before – last year Matt wrote about plans for the site next door, where outline planning permission was given last year for a retail, business and residential development on the site of the long-shut MFI store, one of the area’s first retail barns. With a hotel set for the site, those thoughts about cafe culture on the Woolwich Road might not seem so fanciful now…
But what do you think of the plans? Full details are on Greenwich Council’s planning website, and neighbours have already had notes through their doors.
I’ve already had a few people contact me about this – some delighted to see something happening, some horrified with the design. I’ve created a poll – and don’t forget the comments below.