The trend for all things miniature is set to hit The West End as plans for a new hotel at the Trocadero with bijous 'pod style' rooms have been given the go ahead.

Westminster Council granted permission last night for a 495 bedroom hotel whose small hotel rooms take their inspiration from Japanese capsule hotels and whose designs are based upon first class air cabins.

Being described as London's answer to the fashionable Pod Hotel in New York, the hotel is set to join a series of major hotel developments occurring in Westminster in the run up to the London Olympics which will transform the district with its world famous attractions and ensure it can cope with the millions of extra people who will flock to it in 2012.

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Cllr Alastair Moss, Chairman of Westminster Council's Planning and City Development Committee, said: "We welcome this exciting new development for the West End.

"The designs for this hotel are a good example that bigger does not equal better, and take into account that when people come to central London with its vast array of attractions and things to do they do not always need or want a large room.

"With some of the best shopping streets in the world, world renowned museums and galleries, a booming Theatreland and some of the best bars and restaurants in the UK on their doorstep most of the 200 million people who visit the West End every year would rather go out than stay in."

The redevelopment will see the upper floors of the Trocadero brought back into use for the first time since they housed the UK's biggest indoor theme park Segaworld.

Alongside its 495 hotel rooms the hotel will also boast a breakfast bar and a guest lounge with a terraced area on the eighth floor.

(CD/BMcC)