A PROMINENT but vacant eight storey office building outside Harrow-on-the-Hill Tube station is to become a Tesco Express, a gym and a college.

Councillors approved plans for the conversion of First National House in College Road, Harrow, to allow the ground floor to house a store, the first and second floors a 24-hour gymnasium and the fourth to seventh floors a college.

The building, owned by Harrow The Hub Investments and marketed as ‘The Hub’, has stood empty since June 2011 when occupants GE Money left.

Tenants of the revamped tower block will be a 6,000 sq ft Tesco Express - the supermarket firm’s second mini town centre store - as well as a branch of The Gym gymnasium chain, and St Patrick’s College of London, owned by the London School of Business and Finance.

The West End-based private college has 1,600 students but would only have a maximum of approximately 400 present at any one time.

Harrow Council planning committee meeting unanimously granted planning permission for a change of use on Wednesday and approved the lengthening of the access times to 6am to 11pm seven days a week.