More than two years have passed since Clearwater Estates revealed exclusively to the Comet its plans to transform a major part of Kingston town centre. So what's been happening since?

On the face of it - nothing. The site, people's first glimpse of the Royal borough as they emerge from Kingston station, is still its old, drab self, with no hint it will ever be anything different.

But much has been going on behind the scenes, culminating last week in a long-delayed detailed planning application to Kingston Council for what's become known as The Rotunda.

The £36 million scheme has been designed for the prominent Clarence Street/Cromwell Road junction, opposite Kingston Station. It entails demolishing the old Kingston bus station and garage, the adjoining building (formerly a jam factory) and Pine World (formerly Kingston Kinema).

Bentalls' famous depository, a listed building which also forms part of the site, will be converted into a 14-screen Odeon cinema without altering its landmark exterior.

The rest of the complex, totalling 160,000 square feet, will be devoted to a health and fitness club, a range of cafes and restaurants, leisure-related shops and a family entertainment centre, including tenpin bowling and virtual-reality games.

The planning application has cost well over £1 million to prepare, and Andrew Michell, a Clearwater director, said there were many reasons why it had taken so long.

One was that the former depository and jam factory were being used by Bentalls for goods handling and distribution, and part of the deal was that Clearwater would build replacement premises.

Another was that because the depository is listed, there had to be protracted discussions with English Heritage. A third is that complex negotiations were needed to secure the bus garage and Pine World freeholds.

The scheme, designed by Surbiton-based architects PRC Fewster, has changed face three times since its conception. As the pictures (published here for the first time) show, the version submitted to Kingston Council has a more streamlined look than the original, and is 10 feet lower, to match the scale of neighbouring buildings.

Neil Burton of PRC Fewster said the site was a gateway into the town centre. "This is an exciting opportunity to regenerate the area with powerful architecture," he explained. "The entrance feature will be of contemporary design rather than an attempt at historical pastiche."

Clearwater is offering important spin-offs from the scheme, including a contraflow bus lane in Cromwell Road.

"This would allow buses to come out of the bus station and turn right into Clarence Street instead of having to make a great circuit of the central gyratory system," said Andrew Michell. "We reckon this would take 10 minutes off bus journey times to the north and west of the town centre and greatly reduce traffic congestion.

Another planning gain would be five new almshouses to complement the historic Cleaves Almshouses, some of which stand close to the depository building in Hardman Road.

"At present there are houses on three sides of the garden. We would build more on the fourth side - currently occupied by an old garage", said Mr Michell.

The scheme is good news to residents of Hardman Road, ending years of warehouse activity and industrial parking there. The only parking in the new plan is 21 spaces for the disabled, and Clearwater will provide attractive landscaping.

There are also plans to improve and landscape the pedestrian route from Kingston station to the east side of Clarence Street and a bonus for art lovers is that Clearwater will remove the Victor Pasmore mural from the derelict bus garage canteen, and offer it to the Royal borough.

Victor Pasmore, who died last year, was one of Britain's most influential artists, and his Kingston mural is his first example of a style that had a revolutionary effect on art technique.

Clearwater hopes to begin work on the Rotunda in the autumn, and complete it early in 2001. The company was formed by Howard Morris and Andrew Michell in 1995 to specialise in leisure development. Kingston's Rotunda, if passed, will be its first completed scheme, followed by a project on the waterfront at Greenwich.

This part of the town has long been the entertainment centre of the Royal borough, and at one time had the Empire Theatre and three cinemas.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.