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Soho Estates has submitted a planning application to Westminster City Council for LSX, a purpose-built immersive visitor attraction on Leicester Square. The site, beside the Odeon cinema, is 17–21 Leicester Square and the adjoining buildings on Bear Street and Cranbourn Street. The application, reference 26/04567/FULL, proposes about 50,000 square feet of attraction space over three double-height floors. The plans also include a street-level food hall and a rooftop restaurant with terraces over the square.
Soho Estates projects up to 1.9 million visitors a year, £48 million in additional visitor spending, and about 950 jobs.
Burger King, Pizza Hut and the Market Place Food Hall occupy the site now.
MATT Architecture designed the scheme. LSX would replace eight properties. Six date from the second half of the twentieth century and two from the 1840s. The replacement is a ten-storey building over four basement levels. The design includes a four-storey rotating LED screen facing the square and undulating facades meant to recall a stage curtain. It also adds new shop fronts on Bear Street and Cranbourn Street.
Earlier plans gave capacity as up to 600 people at a time.
The scheme is privately funded.
Soho Estates describes “immersive productions” and “digital storytelling formats”. No operator, content partner or format is attached yet.
“It’s Leicester Square. It’s one of the world’s best-known entertainment destinations, and it’s the right place to put forward an ambitious vision for the future,” said Fawn James, chief executive of Soho Estates, in the developer’s announcement.
Soho Estates said it engaged with the community for nearly three years before filing. Its consultation earlier in 2026 reached 154,000 people and drew 722 responses.
The ABBA Arena was built for the purpose rather than fitted into vacant space, and Secret Cinema’s approved Greenwich venue will be.
The ABBA Arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park opened in May 2022 for ABBA Voyage. It holds 3,000 people and was designed by Stufish as a demountable building. It has passed 3 million visitors.
Secret Cinema won approval in August for a permanent home on Greenwich Peninsula. The main theatre and event space runs to roughly 4,000 square metres, with capacity for up to 1,500 visitors a show. Opening is anticipated in October 2026. That post reported that a purpose-built venue changes the lease terms an operator can negotiate, compared with temporary use of an empty unit.
In the United States, EXP in Rosemont, Illinois opened in 2025 as a 26,000-square-foot free-roam VR venue. It was built in partnership with PHI Studio of Montreal, The VR Collective reported in October 2025.
For operators of large-format immersive shows, LSX is a 50,000-square-foot purpose-built venue on Leicester Square with no operator named. For investors, the 1.9 million annual visitor projection is the developer’s figure. Earlier plans put capacity at up to 600 people at a time. For developers, Soho Estates ran nearly three years of engagement before filing.
What is LSX Leicester Square? LSX is a proposed immersive visitor attraction at 17–21 Leicester Square, London. Soho Estates submitted it to Westminster City Council under planning reference 26/04567/FULL. It would offer about 50,000 square feet of attraction space over three double-height floors, plus a food hall and rooftop restaurant.
Who is building the Leicester Square immersive attraction? Soho Estates is the developer and MATT Architecture the designer. No experience operator or content partner has been named.
When will LSX open? No opening date has been published. The planning application was submitted in August 2026 and Westminster City Council has not announced a decision date.
How does LSX compare with other purpose-built immersive venues in London? The ABBA Arena holds 3,000 people and has passed 3 million visitors since May 2022. Secret Cinema’s approved Greenwich Peninsula venue is about 4,000 square metres with capacity for 1,500 a show. LSX proposes about 50,000 square feet of attraction space and up to 1.9 million visitors a year.
