Councillors decide on Tuesday whether Shepherd's Bush's closed Vue becomes a Rocket Padel centre open to 1am. Officers say yes. Three housing schemes too.

The 12-screen cinema at the West 12 Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush closed at the end of June, and its owner wants to turn it into an 11-court padel centre. The council’s planning committee decides on Tuesday 13 October, and officers are recommending approval.

The officer report says Vue ended its lease at the end of June 2026, six months earlier than expected. The unit has been empty since.

What is proposed

The applicant, West Twelve Investments Ltd, wants to change the use of 4,660 square metres on the second floor from a cinema to an indoor sports centre (application 2026/00315/FUL). The centre would be run by Rocket Padel, which already operates clubs at Battersea Power Station, Beckton, Ilford and Bristol.

The plans include:

  • 11 padel courts
  • changing rooms, toilets and a cafe
  • opening from 6am to midnight, Sunday to Thursday
  • opening from 6am to 1am on Fridays and Saturdays

No changes to the outside of the building are proposed in this application. New signs are the subject of a separate application, which is still being considered.

Padel is a doubles racket game, a cross between tennis and squash, played on an enclosed court with glass or mesh walls.

Why officers say the cinema can go

Local Plan policy would normally require marketing evidence before a cinema is lost. The report says that is not needed here. The council’s updated evidence on leisure needs, it says, shows the borough’s cinema provision is “substantially above demand”.

The cinema opened in 2001 and was rebranded as Vue in 2004, the report says. Officers “acknowledge that the cinema has provided a leisure and entertainment use which has contributed towards the vitality of the Shepherd’s Bush town centre”. They conclude that reusing an empty unit for sport outweighs the loss.

If approved, a legal agreement would secure:

  • a school and community use plan, covering disability and inclusive sessions, junior coaching, school partnerships and cheaper routes into the sport, with monitoring
  • £68,000 towards community safety
  • the council’s legal costs

The council’s Environmental Protection team raised no objection, subject to a condition on sound insulation before the centre opens.

One objection from 379 letters

The council wrote to 379 nearby properties. It received one objection. That resident said the cinema had been “a staple of the local community for almost two decades”, that the centre already has a gym, and that there is already padel at Westfield in White City. Sport England said the plan fell outside its remit, and Transport for London made no comment.

The rest of Tuesday’s agenda

Four more applications are on the agenda. Officers recommend approval for all of them, each subject to a legal agreement.

Site Ward What is proposed Objections
190-194 Goldhawk Road, W12 Coningham Demolish the car sales site and two locally listed former houses; build 24 flats, a commercial unit and a mews of 12 houses 29, plus 1 in support
99-119 Hammersmith Road, W14 Avonmore Convert three floors of offices into 29 homes, with listed building consent 2
57-59 and 61-64 Fulham Park Gardens, SW6 Fulham Town Roof and rear extensions creating eight more flats in the Fulham Park Gardens conservation area 7, from five properties
West 12 Shopping Centre, W12 Addison Cinema to padel centre 1

A few details from the reports:

  • Goldhawk Road. 12 of the 36 homes would be affordable. Seven would be at London Affordable Rent and five intermediate rent, for incomes of £75,000 or less. Officers accept “substantial harm” from losing the two Buildings of Merit at 192a and 194, but say the benefits outweigh it.
  • Hammersmith Road. There is no affordable housing on site. Instead the developer would pay £900,000 towards affordable housing elsewhere, with a late-stage review. Officers say parts of the building have been empty since 2020.
  • Fulham Park Gardens. The new flats would be car-free: future residents could not get parking permits.

What it means for you

  • The meeting is at 7pm on Tuesday 13 October. The agenda and all the reports are on the council’s website.
  • An officer recommendation is not a decision. Councillors can refuse, defer or add conditions. Even after approval, the permission is only issued once the legal agreement is signed.
  • The cinema itself is not coming back under this plan. The report relies on the council’s leisure evidence rather than marketing, so it does not say whether any other cinema operator was approached.

We will report the decisions. For earlier planning stories, see our planning page.

Sources