Plans to demolish Frankie & Benny's restaurant in Knights Park, Tunbridge Wells
Published: 20:48, 15 February 2023
Updated: 21:00, 15 February 2023
Plans have been submitted to demolish a Frankie & Benny's restaurant and vacant pub to make way for a new food and drink complex.
If approved, the Italian, in Knights Park, Tunbridge Wells would be bulldozed in order to make way for a new large single-storey leisure hub.
The vacant Hop House pub next door is also part of the plans. It too would be knocked down for the 1,610sqm building, which could be sub-divided into six units.
The site is currently on the same complex that includes multiplex cinema Odeon, bowling, Hollywood Bowl and Nuffield Health Gym.
The application has been submitted to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council by Abrdn plc, a global investment company based in Edinburgh.
If the development were to go ahead, the building would have an outdoor seating area, parking and landscaping.
As well as this, 25 EV charging spaces would be added for electric cars.
A decision has not yet been made by Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.
In 2020, owners of Frankie & Benny's announced it was closing 125 of its restaurants following the pandemic.
The latest to be axed in Kent was the branch in Maidstone, which closed in December.
Frankie & Benny's has been contacted for comment.
More by this author
Oliver Leonard