A luxury development where some residents have been forced to use 'poor doors' has been given an £800k levelling up grant.
Embassy Gardens, Nine Elms hit the headlines with its Sky Pool earlier this year.
Council chiefs secured the cash for a 110-seat auditorium and state-of-the-art educational, recording and broadcasting facilities at Embassy Gardens in Nine Elms.
The money comes from a £4.8 billion fund for high-value local infrastructure which was intended to support investment, reports MyLondon.
Wandsworth Council's bid for cash successful despite the area having the lowest available rating (3) in the government’s ‘Levelling Up index’, which compares different parts of the UK based on a socio-economic analysis.
The cash is earmarked by charity World Heart Beat Music Academy, which offers free musical tuition to young people in 2017 .
Beating 42 other parties, World Heart Beat Music Academy was handed the space on a ‘peppercorn rent’- a nominal payment required for a legally binding agreement.
But they still required £2 million to construct the facility it needed, £600,000 of which is still to be raised.
Building work has begun transforming the space and the group hopes to open in May with a formal launch by September.
Wandsworth councillor Aydin Dikerdem questioned whether the location of the venue was actually in an area that required levelling up.
He told MyLondon : "It's always good to hear about government funding for youth programmes, and World Heart Beat music is a fantastic organisation,” he said.
“But I have to admit it's pretty remarkable that Levelling Up funding is being used for a concert hall in the same building complex that hosts the sky pool.
The area has faced differences in the differing wealth of its residents which has been criticised by campaigners.
The Wandsworth Anti-Austerity Campaign warned that the regeneration of the area, especially along the North side along the Thames had “almost made it a two-tier borough,”
A spokesman for A Wandsworth Council said the authority was “overjoyed” to receive “transformational award” from the fund.
It comes after residents in some of the flats in the complex said they feel segregated.
Shared ownership tenants are forced to walk through "scuffed poor doors" to get to their flats at an upmarket apartment block and criticised the "segregation" on the site.
The development boasts a 25-metre-long pool bridged between two buildings, 35 metres in the air.
But access to the famed "Sky Pool" is only given to exclusive Embassy Garden members, and shared ownership residents have said they have "no amenities".
