McDonald’s restaurant in the middle of Gravesend town centre has undergone a makeover.

The fast food outlet, at 85 New Road, has been closed for weeks while it gets a technological transformation and reopened on Thursday.

The restaurant has been given a new look with LED lighting, new furniture and extra seating.

But the biggest change of all is that customers can now order and pay themselves with self-serving kiosks replacing the order counter and queues.

All food will be freshly prepared – something that has reduced waiting times in other stores.

Paul Shaw, owner-operator of McDonald’s in Gravesend, said the new store offered “the experience of the future”.

He said: “Everything is completely brand new and it is stunning.

“We have been here for an awfully long time and struggled with seating capacity. We wanted to make the whole of the restaurant accessible to everyone, meaning everyone can sit upstairs and use the same facilities as everyone else."

The new-look McDonald’s will boast an extra 40 seats upstairs, with a lift and automatic doors.

The restaurant has a different layout with new furniture and all toilets now have baby-changing facilities, including the men’s.

This is something Mr Shaw described as a “big customer statement”. He said: “It’s all about keeping up with customers – they want more and rightly so. We want to show people we are compatible and welcoming.”

“It’s not just a building but a customer experience..." - Paul Shaw

There will also be communal seating with free tablets and internet use.

The building has already lived a full life in the hospitality industry. In 1528 the place we now go to for a quick burger and fries was the Fleur de Luces pub before being reintroduced as the Marquis of Granby in 1775, known locally as the Granby Inn.

In 1806 Gravesend welcomed the Nelson and Nelson Tap which took over the entire width of New Road between Stone Street and Windmill Street. It was a coaching inn with horse stables that acted as a social spot.

Despite a few layers of paint and some re-structuring, the form of the building remains the same 140 years later.

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