A planning application has been submitted to the council for a new boutique hotel in the heart of Greenwich town centre.

The Greenwich Town House Hotel would be a high end 21-suite hotel above Bar du Musée in Nelson Road.

Businessman Frank Dowling is behind the application and tells Greenwich.co.uk he is in “final negotiations” with a specialist boutique hotel operator.

The hotel will occupy the upper floors of 17-21 Nelson Road, a Grade-II listed terrace designed by Joseph Kay. No external structural work is required for the conversion and following a refit, the new hotel could be open as early as February 2012.

Bar du Musée, the first business bought in Greenwich by Dowling, will be incorporated as an upmarket restaurant within the new five star hotel.

But with the landowner, Greenwich Hospital Estate, having permission to build its own 100-bed boutique hotel across the road at Greenwich Market, and following news that a large boutique hotel was recently approved in Catherine Grove, are they worried about about the continued viability of their own scheme?

Edward Dolby, Resources Manager at Greenwich Hospital, tells Greenwich.co.uk that they have “no planning grounds on which to object to this scheme” and they believe there “will be sufficient demand” for their own boutique hotel which is due to completed by the end of 2014.

Greenwich.co.uk understands a firm commitment has already been made by a national equestrian federation to book out the Greenwich Town House Hotel in its entirety during next summer’s Olympics.