The name of a proposed new Wetherspoon pub in Sheerness town centre has been revealed.

The national pub and restaurant chain, which is hoping to open a branch in the former Brittain & Hobbs electrical store in the High Street, will be called the Belle and Lion after a former inn if it gets the go-ahead.

If approved, the pub could create 40 jobs and could take about four months to complete.

Details about how they would convert the building have also been submitted to Swale council as part of the planning application.

Watford-based firm, JD Wetherspoon said: “We go to great lengths to research and retain information about the history of the building and its area, which they then display within the public house.”

Swale council is likely to make a decision on the proposal on February 13.

The high street is part of the Mile Town Conservation Area, which means the firm has to demonstrate that its plan would preserve or enhance the character through a heritage impact assessment.

Proposed work on the building would involve converting the vacant ground floor shop and three two-bedroom flats on the first and second floors.

It also includes knocking down a storage unit to make way for an extension – adding an extra 193sqm of floor space – and a landscaped garden area at the rear.

The first floor would be converted into toilet facilities and store room while the second floor would become a staff room, office, storage, staff toilet and plant room.

In the supporting statement, it says: “JD Wetherspoon has a very good reputation for sensitively converting buildings of historic and architectural importance into pub/restaurant facilities.”

One objection has come from a resident, of nearby Beach Terrace, who says: “May I bring it to your attention that Beach House (which is situated at the end of Beach Terrace on the left hand side of Beach Street) is in fact a grade II listed building and in being listed is of historical architectural importance.

“This listed building sits directly onto the road and will incur damage with the increased volume of traffic if this development goes ahead.” Other complaints, which were made before the heritage impact assessment, related to noise and car parking in Beach Street where there is already said to be issues.

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The Belle and Lion was the name of the first public house to be built in Mile Town.

A spokesman for Wetherspoon says it is listed in a local directory of 1824 and a more recent one published in 1938.

The Boots store in High Street now stands on the site of the former inn.

Other possible names that were considered included The Lion’s Head after a Victorian-era ironmongers which operated in the former Brittain and Hobbs site in 1871.

It fashioned heavy brass door knockers in the shape of a lion’s head.

The Sailor King was also an option as it is a reference to the Duke of Clarence, who became King William IV, who opened the Royal Naval Dockyard, in 1823.

Other possibilities were The Milton Hundred and The Samuel Pepys who, Wetherspoon says, first suggested a royal dockyard should be built in Sheerness.

The John Rennie, after the famous civil engineer, was also considered, as was The Port Admiral.

Michael Crawford, the award-winning star of stage and screen who spent some time living at his grandmother’s house in The Crescent, Halfway, was mentioned in discussions.