Update on Balham Hotel plans

Steel House was  the subject of a Wandsworth Press Release in January which said that this building at 177 Balham High Road, just under  the iron railway bridge, has had planning permission approved to build a 90 bedroom hotel on the site.

Since then nothing has happened.  So I took it up with Kim Bellringer, our Balham Town Centre Manager at Wandsworth Council.

She explained that Steel House is currently leased to the Secretary of State until March 2011 and she does not anticipate work to start until that lease expires.

Although Kim doesn't say which Hotel chain has acquired the site, a little digging reveals that it is Travellodge who are also planning to build another hotel in Tooting Broadway above the old Woolworths.

Does South London really need this many hotel sites, given that we already have two in Colliers Wood / South Wimbledon?