pounds 300m `leisure dome' site for London

LONDONERS COULD soon be able to ski, swim, climb a mountain and ice-skate inside a giant glazed structure built in one of the city's most deprived areas.

Spring Gardens, a barren patch of land in Vauxhall, across the Thames from Victoria station, would be transformed into a 1.5 million square foot indoor "leisure dome" under plans revealed yesterday by the developer, CLS Holdings.

The pounds 300m project includes a 26-storey hotel, restaurants and shops, similar to the leisure malls pioneered in the United States. It will be linked to Vauxhall Tube station by a glazed tunnel. The scheme could create up to 3,000 jobs for people in the area.

Under the plans, still to be approved by the local council, the building would be divided into three areas or "worlds": the summer world centred on the swimming pool; the temperate world, built around a mountain-bike track; and the winter world with the ice rink and ski slope.

CLS said the complex could be built in little more than four years, and added that it had already had contacts with retailers interested in buying space. The developer said the project would be the first integrated retail and leisure complex to be built in the UK, and would help to regenerate the area.

Lambeth Council, the Labour-controlled local authority that will consider the scheme, has given its preliminary approval. Jim Dickson, the leader of the council, said yesterday that the development could help to alleviate unemployment, poor housing and "some of the worst deprivation you could find in London".

However, Mr Dickson said the council would expect to receive "many millions of pounds" for the part of Spring Gardens it owns.

The project now goes to public consultation with local residents before its formal submission to the council.