Earls Court to be bulldozed in revamp plan

Earls Court Exhibition Centre is to be torn down to make way for thousands of new homes, if new plans are approved.

Developers want to create four "villages" and a "high street" on a 77-acre site in west London.

The exhibition centre, Seagrave Road car park, Lillie Bridge railway depot and West Kensington and Gibbs Green housing estates occupy the area.

A planning application has yet to be submitted to Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

Earls Court has played host to big exhibitions like the Ideal Homes Exhibition and to concerts by some of the world's biggest artists, from Madonna to Roger Waters.

If given the go ahead the bulldozers would move in after it hosts the Olympic volleyball tournament in 2012.

Developers, Capital and Counties, say the plans will create 7,500 homes and 12,000 permanent jobs as well as 1,500 construction jobs.

The site is jointly owned by EC&O, Transport for London and Hammersmith and Fulham Council.

Gary Yardley, on behalf of EC&O, said the plan envisaged thousands of "much-needed new homes and jobs and acres of new green space for the local community to enjoy".

He said they had worked closely with the community for more than a year and their feedback had had a "great influence" on the plans.

A council spokesman said: "This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to double the number of affordable homes in the area... and bring thousands of new jobs and new community facilities such as schools, healthcare centres and better open spaces."

But he added that the council was only interested in taking part "if this is good for our estate residents, good for the wider area and good for the borough as a whole".

An exhibition of the plans is being held in the Museum Hall of the Earls Court Exhibition Centre until Tuesday.