The Seaview pub in Birchington is due to be sold at auction

The Seaview pub

The Seaview pub in Birchington is due to be sold at auction.

The property in Station Road will go under the hammer on December 11 with a guide price of £350,000 to £400,000 plus fees.

It is currently owned by Kent brewery Shepherd Neame.

The auctioneer says: “The property may be suitable for a variety of commercial uses, perhaps bed and breakfast, restaurant or even conversion/re-development entirely to residential, subject to all necessary consents being obtainable.”

The building also contains three-bed accommodation plus four rooms which are let to guests.

The freehold is being offered with vacant possession.

The Seaview, previously called the Railway Hotel, was opened in 1865. It was built very shortly after the opening of the final section of the London to Ramsgate railway in 1863.

By 1884 the Hotel had been renamed The Sea View Hotel.

During March 2002, the Shepherd Neame Brewery awarded the Hotel The Most Improved Pub of the Year, in one of their annual awards. In the garden there stands a huge pair of ribs forming an arch. They were taken from a whale that beached itself at Minnis Bay in 1919.

The landlord of the time, Walter James Baker, was down at the Bay when the carcass was being dismembered for disposal and asked for the ribs, to act as a feature in his garden at the pub.

The auction takes place at 11am at The Clive Emson Conference Centre in Maidstone.

Shepherd Neame recently sold The Sportman in Cliffsend and The Orb in Margate for development.

History courtesy Birchington Heritage Trust