A café unit at Kentish Town Underground Station would become a gym open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Camden can decide from 2 September; comments are open now.
Premises at Kentish Town Underground Station would be used as a gym open 24 hours a day, seven days a week under an application Camden Council registered on 12 August. The council can make a decision from 2 September, and comments are open until then.
The application, reference 2026/3418/P, is for full planning permission at Kentish Town Underground Station, Kentish Town Road, NW5 2AA. Camden’s own planning record describes it in one line: “Use of the premises as a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week gymnasium, falling within Use Class E(d).”
What is actually changing
The record sets out the change of use precisely. The existing land use is logged as Class E(b), restaurant or café. The proposed use is Class E(d), indoor sport, recreation or fitness.
Both sit inside Use Class E, the broad commercial class introduced in 2020, and that matters more than it sounds. Movement within Class E does not normally require planning permission at all. The reason this application exists is the hours: a premises trading round the clock is a materially different neighbour from a café, and that is what the council is being asked to weigh.
Camden classifies the application as a commercial change of use and has put it with its Planning Solutions Team. The case officer is Paul Vassiliadis. The agent acting is Nexus Planning; the applicant is listed only as “C/O agent”, so the operator behind the proposal is not named in the public record at this stage.
The council’s record does not state which unit within the station building is involved, and we have not published a guess. The station frontage on Kentish Town Road carries several arched units alongside the ticket hall entrance.
The dates that matter
- 10 August 2026: application valid from this date
- 12 August 2026: registered by Camden, current status Registered
- 2 September 2026: the earliest date Camden can determine it
Camden’s guidance on its planning pages is that the statutory consultation period on a planning application is a minimum of 21 days, and that the online comments form closes when that period ends. After it closes, the council says comments can still be sent by email to planning@camden.gov.uk, and that it takes account of representations “right up until an application is determined”.
Comments on this application can be left through Camden’s comment form for 2026/3418/P. Your name and address are published with your comment; your phone number and email are not.
Also registered in Camden this week
Camden registered 131 planning applications in the seven working days to 14 August, according to the council’s current applications dataset. Belsize had the most, with 18, followed by Highgate (14), Hampstead Town (13) and Frognal (11).
Sixty of the 131 were about trees: 46 notifications of intended works to trees in a conservation area, nine applications for work to trees covered by a tree preservation order, and five emergency notifications for dead or dangerous trees. That is a bigger share of the borough’s planning workload than most people would guess, and it is the same stock we looked at in the council’s tree register.
Four others worth knowing about:
- 11 Daleham Gardens, Belsize (2026/3367/P). Refurbishment and conversion of eight existing flats into five, with lower ground and ground floor rear extensions, three rear dormers in place of two, and excavation to lower the lower ground floor. Registered 10 August; earliest decision 4 September. A net loss of three homes is the sort of thing Camden’s housing policies bite on.
- 529B Finchley Road, Fortune Green (2026/3361/P and 2026/3371/P). Two linked applications to add a rear extension and reconfigure part of the ground floor retail unit, creating one new one-bedroom flat and one new studio flat. Registered 12 August.
- 80 Neal Street, Holborn and Covent Garden (2026/3471/L). Listed building consent for a Seven Dials Trust People’s Plaque commemorating Gurbachan Singh Maan (1790 to 1835), to be fixed to the facade at first floor level. Registered 13 August. The People’s Plaques project is the Trust’s scheme for marking figures connected with the Seven Dials streets.
- 32 Downshire Hill, Hampstead Town (2026/2882/P). Two “jumbrellas” with heating and lighting for the side garden of the public house there. Registered 7 August; earliest decision 28 August.
What it means for you
- If you live near the station, the hours are the point to comment on. Noise, comings and goings late at night and servicing are planning considerations. Whether you would personally use a gym is not.
- You do not have to be a neighbour to comment. Camden’s form asks for a name and address, not proof you were formally consulted, and the council says it reads representations until the application is decided.
- Check the register before you assume. Every application above can be looked up by reference on Camden’s planning records, and our Camden planning page explains which decisions the council still takes and which have moved to the Oxford Street Development Corporation.
- Getting there: the station is on the Northern line, interchanging with Kentish Town Thameslink. Our Camden tube times and fares page has the fare and zone detail, and Camden roadworks and travel covers current closures.
Have your say
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