A new cafe and welcome centre is set to become the first building to open at a closed-off 18th century fort.

A planning application has been submitted as part of a gradual process to open up The Citadel at Dover’s Western Heights as a business and tourism site.

Hotels, restaurants, art galleries, and music studios are all planned as part of the ambitious project, which is to be called ‘The Little City’ and is estimated to cost £100 million.

David de Min, chief executive of the site’s owners Dover Citadel Ltd, submitted plans for the Citadel Welcome Centre Cafe to Dover District Council (DDC) last month.

If approved, a building previously used as a visitors’ centre during The Citadel’s time as a prison will be converted.

“We are working with all the surrounding landowners across the whole of the Western Heights,” Mr de Min said.

“The cafe will be the first public building on the outside of The Citadel.

“This will also form as a public consultation place for us to invite people.”

The cafe is set to open just outside The Citadel main entrance and would be owned by Dover Citadel Ltd, which put through the application to DDC.

The welcome centre, on 1.58 acres, would use the 98 available car parking spaces just outside. It would be open from 9am to 5.30pm seven days a week.

The design statement to the council from application agent Hollaway Studio of Hythe, says: “This application seeks to re-purpose an existing vacant building on The Citadel site into a cafe to provide food and beverage amenity to those working in The Citadel, and to support the wider future aspirations for redevelopment of the site.”

Mr de Min first revealed the details after he gave a speech with updates on the overall project to a public meeting of the civic group the Dover Society last month.

He told an audience that packed St Mary’s Parish Hall in the town: “One of the first things we want to do next is open the cafe in the next few months.

"We will work with stakeholders from all parts of the Western Heights to create a long-term future.

“Dover is one of the last seaside towns that has not been developed and The Citadel is one or the missing pieces that will bring it all together.”

Mr de Min told the audience one plan is to use the site as a wedding venue, run guided tours there and eventually open a hotel in the giant officers’ quarters building.

Galleries and a visitor centre are also planned.

The Citadel has been opened up for small businesses and is planned to have guided tours.

It is already being used as a filming location, for instance for Pistol, Danny Boyle’s film about punk legends the Sex Pistols in 2021.

The site, covering 33 acres and with 54 buildings, was bought from the Ministry of Justice by Dover Citadel Ltd in September 2020.

Mr de Min’s bold project is expected to span a decade.

Cash injections have included, in 2022, a grant of £1.8 million from the government’s Getting Building Fund to restore the 12 casemates, originally firing positions for soldiers.

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The Citadel and the wider Western Heights were used as a fortification during the Napoleonic Wars and both world wars.

It was used by the prison service from the 1950s as both an adult jail and borstal and had been the 314-bed Dover Immigration Removal Centre from 2020 to 2015.

Dover’s Western Heights, now a 128-acre nature reserve, are a natural steep hill area overlooking Western Docks.

They became the biggest Napoleonic fortification in the UK and other defences created there include the Drop Redoubt and Grand Shaft.

A decision on the cafe application will be made by planning officers at DDC.

The Citadel is also holding an art exhibition this month and visitors need to book to attend via thecitadel.co.uk

The show, from April 19 to 22, is called Deja Vu and is by the art group Safari.