The rash of new five-star hotels being developed in the capital to cope with the surge of visitors around the 2012 Olympics is continuing with the InterContinental signing up for a new landmark in the heart of Westminster.

The £100 million, 254-room, six-storey InterContinental London Westminster hotel will occupy the 19th-century former Queen Anne's Chambers close to New Scotland Yard. The building is currently used for offices and shops.

The new hotel, the second InterContinental hotel in London after the group's Park Lane flagship, is set to open in late 2011.

InterContinental Hotel Group has signed an agreement with hotel management franchise group Splendid Hotel Group to operate the hotel.

The new luxury InterContinental in Westminster will follow several other top-of-the-range hotels due to open in the capital before the Olympics.

They include the re-opening of a hotel at the Gothic masterpiece at St Pancras with more than 250 rooms, set to open next year. Others upcoming include substantial hotels on The Strand at Marconi House, on Northumberland Avenue and a Shangri-la at London Bridge.

The plans at Westminster top a busy year for IHG, which has a total of 37 hotels in the pipeline which will open before 2012.

It currently has 250 hotels in the UK. The vast majority are Holiday Inns but it also has the Crowne Plaza and Indigo brands.