Developers are hoping to turn a 19th century oasthouse next to Canterbury Castle into a block of apartments.

The grade II-listed site on the edge of the city centre in Gas Street has stood derelict for a number of years and become a target for graffiti vandals.

Having eyed up the site's potential, its new owners - who snapped up the property at auction for £700,000 last March - have launched a bid to turn it into a housing complex.

Little is known of the building's history but it is thought to be a replacement of an original timber-framed oasthouse.

Originally used to dry hops, it was converted into a theatre workshop and then a museum store in the early 1980s, which is its last known use before becoming redundant.

It was snapped up at a Clive Emson auction last year when it smashed its guide price by more than £100,000.

Despite not boasting quintessential Kentish oasthouse aesthetics, the three-storey building - deemed by developers to be of "low communal value" - is still of historic importance.

Folkestone-based firm Sterling Holdings Ltd has drawn up proposals to convert the site, which backs onto the ring-road, into seven apartments.

Part of an extension added in the 1970s would be demolished should the scheme be given the go-ahead by Canterbury City Council.

Since the neighbouring Norman castle shut to the public about four years ago, the oasthouse has been the target of vandalism and graffiti.

As a result, the developers say they can "improve" the old site by turning it into one-bed and two-bed homes.

"The development presents a fantastic opportunity not only to ensure that a disused and redundant listed building is brought back into use but in a manner that will provide passive surveillance to a currently unprotected area," the applicants state.

"In the consideration of the building’s historic value, its associative value is, really, unknown aside from the obvious fact that the oasthouse would have been associated with the growing of hops/the brewing of beer.

"It is apparent that the site lies within an area of significant archaeological importance and investigations will be required."

Historic England has analysed the proposals and raised no objection - stating the works will "not result in the loss of any significant historic fabric".

The council-owned castle closed due to health and safety fears but the authority is hoping to eventually reopen the site to the public following repair work.

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