By Editor,Jon Brady

Copyright dailymail

London’s Trocadero is set to be reborn as a nightlife destination after plans for a new casino were approved – but will have an unlikely neighbour in the form of a mosque.

Westminster Council’s planning committee green-lit Genting Casinos’ plan to convert the former Opium nightclub and several retail units into a 1,250-capacity gambling den.

The new gaming house wedged between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square will have round-the-clock security and will create some 350 jobs.

But it will also share a building with a Muslim prayer space that was approved two years ago. Gambling is considered ‘haram’, or forbidden, in Islam, making the two ventures unlikely stablemates.

Plans for the place of worship, dreamt up by a charitable foundation chaired by Trocadero owner Asif Aziz, were signed off in June 2023.

Billionaire Mr Aziz is known as ‘Mr West End’ as he owns swathes of the capital’s entertainment district through his firm, Criterion Capital. His firm purchased the Trocadero and Piccadilly Hotel for £225million in 2005.

But he has courted controversy after buying and closing the world’s first YMCA in central London, chasing tenants for rent during Covid and allegedly threatening the future of the independent Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square.

Concerns had been expressed that his foundation’s mosque and community centre would dominate the London landmark.

However, the majority of the building – once home to the SegaWorld amusement centre – has been a hotel since 2020, and the mosque itself will comprise of a basement space with a mezzanine floor, accessed from a ground floor entrance.

Its capacity of 390 people is dwarfed by the new Genting casino that was signed off on Wednesday night.

The entertainment complex could also be accompanied by a 75-cover restaurant, taking its total capacity to 1,325.

It will carve out units currently used as a souvenir shop and one of London’s widely derided wizarding-themed boutiques, Wizards & Wonders, the proprietors of which are alleged to owe some £400,000 in business rates to the council across several trading companies.

This was not lost on Genting chief financial officer James Axelby, who told councillors on Wednesday: ‘We strongly believe our proposals is better than the existing uses of the sites, led by a best-in-class gaming offer.

‘We’ll restore the building, which is currently covered in tatty signage, (and will see) owners paying business rates again.’

Describing the existing offerings as ‘poor quality’ in a planning statement, Genting says it wants to return some prestige to the area, and consulted with local businesses and residents’ groups prior to submitting its application.

However, the notion of another casino in the area was opposed by The Soho Society, which said Coventry Street would go from ‘busy to unmanageable’, and was concerned about nightclub-style crowds piling into the streets at night.

Elizabeth Gallagher, of the group, told the meeting: ‘We do appreciate the time taken to listen to local concerns. Ultimately, we do not believe this proposal is right for the area.’

Mr Axelby, however, said there would be a ‘robust operational management plan’ at the heart of the casino’s day-to-day running.

Cllr Patrick Lilley, chair of the planning sub-committee, sought to allay concerns of crowds of people piling out into the streets at 3am by noting that the casino would be a round-the-clock operation.

The West End councillor – who hosts his own DJ night at Kings Cross venue Scala – noted: ‘As someone who still runs a club night the way people exit venues is totally different from a 24 hour one such as a casino.’

The committee – Cllrs Elizabeth Hitchcock, Robert Rigby, Md Shamsed Chowdhury, Iman Less and Patrick Lilley – voted unanimously in favour of the plans.

The Trocadero Centre originally opened as a restaurant in 1896, but closed in the 1960s and lay derelict for almost two decades until it was reimagined as an entertainment centre.

In 1990, an amusement arcade called Funland opened on the first floor, followed by laser tag, bowling and a live-action experience inspired by the Alien movies, before SegaWorld opened in 1996.

The Japanese gaming giant pulled out in 1999 and Funland continued to exist until 2014 before the venue was gutted and remodelled as a hotel.

Plans for the mosque – which will be accessed from nearby Rupert Street – were approved in June 2023 but the project is yet to be realised because of additional planning conditions.

The Aziz Foundation is required to provide details of security bollards that will be built outside the entrance to protect it from ‘hostile vehicles’ before the mosque can be built.

It submitted details of these to council planners in July. An opening date is yet to be announced.

The charity was contacted for further comment.