Eye-catching plans for a 100-bed hotel within a £25 million complex on the edge of the city have been revealed.

Developers have unveiled bold proposals to build the four-star accommodation alongside a 200-seat auditorium, business hub for post-graduates, apartments and a restaurant on land near the University of Kent.

Father-and-son team Ralph and Alistair Noel are behind the ambitious plan, which they say will make the city more like Cambridge and Oxford.

Its design has been described as the best since the redevelopment of the Marlowe, with an outline application for the scheme in Giles Lane expected to be submitted before Christmas.

However, St Edmund’s School, which owns the land, has already agreed for student accommodation to be built on the plot, but the Noels hope governors will reconsider and opt for their proposal instead.

Ralph, who used to run The Bing lap dancing club in Dover Street with his 23-year-old son, believes there is a surplus of student housing in Canterbury.

“The city doesn’t need any more,” he said. “There is an abundance and over-supply of it and we don’t think that is the way to go.

“Instead, we have created something which is exciting and just what the city needs. It will immensely improve the image of Canterbury and can help make it more like Bath or Cambridge or Oxford.

“University students learn there and then stay to work in the cities, but that doesn’t happen in Canterbury. We want to change that by having students use the incubation hubs where they can start a business.

“We also don’t think we have quality hotels here so we are proposing an upmarket four-star hotel, which is similar to the Hilton, along with a restaurant.”

The pair, who are submitting the plans as Citi Nests Ltd, say the auditorium will be used as a music centre and could host art exhibitions, lectures and film festivals.

Also included in the development is a bar and cafe, a 96-space underground car park and 20 apartments above a new squash centre to replace the current venue used by Canterbury Squash Club.

Ralph added: “The squash building is from the 1970s and is looking rather tired – we will demolish that and build an internationally-used subterranean squash centre with six glass-backed courts.

“That is something which the club are backing.

“With regards to the incubation centres and hotel, they will be three-and-a-half storeys high.

"We’ve taken into account the fact that people don’t like tall buildings which spoil the view of the Cathedral, so this has been carefully designed so that you won’t be able to see it from far away.

“Instead, it will be a development which people stumble across, think ‘wow’ because of its striking design, and decide they want to go and see what is inside.”

If given the go-ahead, the complex – designed by award-winning architect Richard Scott – will be known as Opus, the Latin word for ‘work’.

Alistair, a former St Edmund’s pupil and one of east Kent’s fastest growing developers, said: “The development ticks an enormous amount of the city council’s boxes – it covers tourism, education and sport, so it’s a real hub for creativity.

“We’re trying to solve the problem of post-graduates leaving the city and also offer a great hotel which could possibly be used by parents visiting their children at university. We have come a long way since the strip club.”

Following the tender for the land at Gorsefields earlier in the year, school governors cannot speak to another developer until spring next year.

A spokesman from St Edmund’s said: “The school has chosen a preferred bidder with respect to the land at Gorsefie ld and has entered into a period of exclusivity so cannot comment further on the matter.

“Citi Nests Ltd was an unsuccessful bidder who is not in partnership with the school.”