THE CLARENDON could be restored to its former glory and transformed back into a hotel.

Developer Les Woolends hopes to bring a “little piece of the West End to Gravesend” by converting the Grade II listed building into an “aparthotel”, offering guests the choice of either staying in a hotel room or apartment.

The development would also include a restaurant, and Mr Woolends, who owns the building, hopes it could also become a wedding venue.

Planning permission has already been granted to turn the former hotel in Royal Pier Road into 20 self-contained one- and two-bedroom flats and a restaurant.

But a further application has now been submitted to Gravesham council to build an extension on the second and third floors to provide 15 hotel rooms.

If the application for the hotel is granted, the flats already under construction will instead form part of the hotel.

Mr Woolends, of Thamesview Living, said: “People will be able to stay in apartment-type rooms and eat in an up-market restaurant with a nice atmosphere. The idea is to have a Titanic-type opulence.”

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Mr Woolends hopes to furnish the flats with plasma screens, internet facilities and a mini bar. The hotel rooms will all have en-suite facilities.

He added: “I have a friend who lives in Gravesend who used to stay in the honeymoon suite of the Clarendon every year.

“Where possible we have kept original features.

“I hope people will want to stay here and enjoy the venue.”

In response to a public inquiry last year, several people contacted the Messenger to say they wished the Clarendon could remain as a hotel.

A decision on the application for the hotel will be made by July 2.