On the latter, one senior music industry insider lamented they had not gone large. He argued that the new Olympia will hold 3,800, a similar size to the nearby Hammersmith Apollo, but below the Royal Albert Hall (5,900) and Brixton Academy (5,000). What London needs, he said, is a centrally located space to match Wembley Arena (12,500) and Alexandra Palace (10,250). Plumping for solo carried extra risk. The reason why Olympia felt forlorn at night was because those exhibitions (which can still remain, except there will be more of them and they will likely be buzzier) and the fairs were daytime events; at night there was no one there. This way, mixed use, they hope to get a constant through-put of people during the day and evening, in the week and at weekends. Key in the cocktail is the amount of space dedicated to offices. It’s a whopping 550,000 square feet, 40 per cent of which has already been let. They have one major coup under their belt — the Premier League has committed to 73,000 square feet for its in-house content and broadcast headquarters.
Will the £1.3 billion Olympia regeneration pay off?
