page_title: London Trocadero
section_title: Redevelopment from 2005
hierarchical_section_title: London Trocadero / Redevelopment from 2005
caption_attribution_description: English: The entrance to the amusement arcade 'Funland' in the London Trocadero, November 2007. Previously known as Segaworld, the long-running arcade was closed in July 2011.
context_page_description: The London Trocadero was an entertainment complex on Coventry Street, with a rear entrance in Shaftesbury Avenue, London. It was originally built in 1896 as a restaurant, which closed in 1965. In 1984, the complex reopened as an exhibition and entertainment space, which operated until 2014. Part of the building was opened as a hotel in 2020.
  The complex incorporates a number of separate historic London buildings, including the old London Pavilion Theatre, that have in the past hosted the Palace of Varieties, the New Private Subscription Theatre, the Royal Albion Theatre, the Argyll Subscription Rooms, the Eden Theatre and the Trocadero Restaurant.
  The name Trocadero indirectly derives from the Battle of Trocadero in 1823, through the Palais du Trocadéro in Paris, named after the French victory. Since at least 1919, the Trocadero has been abbreviated to the Troc or Chicarito, and under that name it appears in a poem by John Betjeman.
context_section_description: Criterion Capital acquired the Trocadero in 2005, and unveiled plans to comprehensively redevelop the site while retaining the listed facade. In 2009, a plan to build a pod hotel with 500 budget rooms inside the building was announced. A new plan for a 583-bedroom hotel including "pod rooms", apartments, shops and a rooftop bar was approved by Westminster City Council in August 2012. In March 2014, Criterion announced plans to open a TK Maxx in the centre, 5 years after it was blocked by the Crown Estate. After further delays and changes of plan, Criterion opened the hotel in 2020: the Zedwell Piccadilly has 728 windowless rooms and a large rooftop bar.
  The 'rocket' escalator was removed in May 2011, and what remained of Funland closed in July 2011. The locked entrance and a handful of left-over arcade games and attractions remained in a much quieter, emptier Trocadero centre with spaces at basement level for street dancers. Despite some online articles indicating that the venue would permanently close on 25 February 2014, only a few areas were removed and others remained open while renovation and plans to build the hotel continued. The Cineworld cinema closed on 21 September 2014 and was replaced by a new Picturehouse cinema called Picturehouse Central, which opened on 19 June 2015.
  Plans were submitted in May 2020 to develop parts of the building's basement into a mosque but were later withdrawn.
caption: Entrance to Funland, November 2007
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