A multicultural performing arts centre is to be built in Tottenham, north London, in memory of Bernie Grant, the former MP for the area.

Plans for the Bernie Grant Centre for Performing Arts are being taken forward by architect Rivington Street Studio, which had discussions with the MP just before he died in April this year.

The centre, which will seek Millennium Commission funding, will be dedicated to black and Asian artists and will include a 1800-seat theatre, a cinema and training spaces all ranged around a public square.

The centre, proposed for a 1 ha site in Tottenham town centre, replaces an ambitious proposal for a £100m centre on a Tottenham Hale site that the MP had initially championed.

The earlier scheme, to have been called the International Centre for Performing Arts, was designed by black architect Elsie Owusu.

It was abandoned when a lottery bid was rejected and backers failed to raise funds to buy the 5.6 ha site.

Haringey council refused to back the earlier scheme, which it felt was in the wrong place and was overly ambitious.

Following the collapse of the scheme, the council brought in Rivington to look at the possibility of building a more modest centre in Clyde Road in the middle of Tottenham.