Plans for Leigh's Fleur de Lis Aim to Restore Closed Village Pub, Parish Council Says

On paper, it looks like the kind of planning application that barely registers: an upgraded kitchen extraction system, a replacement fence, a relocated boiler flue. But the paperwork behind 26/01438/FUL, lodged at Sevenoaks District Council for the Fleur de Lis in Leigh, points to something considerably bigger - a full internal strip-out across both floors of the pub, and a Parish Council that's publicly hoping it marks the building's return as a working local.

The Fleur de Lis is Grade II listed: a single-storey, L-shaped Tudor-revival range with striped red and blue brick, five gables to the road, and half-timbering with plaster infill, according to its official listing description. Sevenoaks District Council's own conservation officer, responding to the application, set out its significance in more detail: the original 1855 building is tied to Thomas Bailey and the Hall Place Estate, was later converted and extended by Bartrum and Co. and then the Dartford Brewery Co., and was likely built using bricks from Leigh's own brickworks and Kent peg tiles. It groups together with the village hall, the British Legion Hall and the Fleur de Lis Cottages as a set of heritage assets, and sits within the Leigh Conservation Area - all of which the officer says gives the building real communal as well as architectural value.

The application's own description undersells the scale of the work. Alongside the ventilation and flue changes, the drawings submitted include existing and proposed general-arrangement layouts, with a full strip-out, for both the ground and first floors - not a like-for-like refit. A separate "Managers Accommodation" unit on the same site is listed as part of the application too, suggesting whoever is behind this intends the building to be properly staffed and run, not just patched up.

Leigh Parish Council's own comment on the application, submitted in August, makes the intent explicit. Clerk Louise Kleinschmidt wrote that the council "supports this application because the small amount of external impact is limited to the rear of the building and, with the proposed close board fencing, is an improvement on the existing outlook," adding: "The Parish Council would like to see the building, which is a registered community asset, restored to its optimum use as a village pub and conserved for the benefit of the local community. Members feel that the level of investment proposed will sustain the building's conservation for decades to come." The Fleur de Lis is currently listed as temporarily closed on its own online listings, which fits with the Parish Council's language of restoring it to proper use rather than simply refurbishing a pub that never stopped trading.

The application isn't close to resolved. In August, Sevenoaks' Environmental Health team said the plans didn't give enough detail on odour control or noise from the new kitchen extract, and asked for them to be checked against national guidance on commercial kitchen exhaust systems. In response, a Kitchen Odour Assessment was submitted on 8 September. It scored the premises 43 - classing it as "Very High" risk for odour. The council's Environmental Protection officer replied the same day: the planned filtration, a kitchen canopy with grease filters alone, isn't strong enough for that risk category, and carbon filtration will need to be added on top before the council can sign off. One thing is still missing from the public file: no operator or business name appears anywhere on it, only the agent acting for whoever applied. So for now, this is a building on the way to reopening, not a confirmed one - and the application is still awaiting a decision.

Source: Sevenoaks District Council