Qualla: Battle of Britain, Northfleet

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: Introduction

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Anstiss, CC BY-SA 2.0. In October 2016 a Kent council planning officer admitted, in the local newspaper, that a popular pub had been pulled down "by mistake". The contractors had arrived at the Battle of Britain pub on Coldharbour Road in Northfleet without planning permission and demolished it anyway. The brewery that owned the land said the demolition was carried out by their consultants. The consultants said they had been authorised. By the time anyone in authority intervened, the pub was rubble. CAMRA called it criminal. Pub campaigners demanded it be rebuilt brick by brick, the way the Carlton Tavern in London had been rebuilt in 2015 after a similar illegal demolition. They are still waiting.

Image: David Anstiss | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: Built by the Men Who Won the Battle

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Clem Rutter, Rochester Kent, CC BY-SA 3.0. The pub began in 1947 as a wooden hut on the former Gravesend airfield - put up by RAF personnel who had served at the wartime base and now needed somewhere to drink, somewhere to remember, somewhere to be together at the strange ordinary distance from the war they had just won. ...

Image: Clem Rutter, Rochester Kent | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: From Hut to Estate Pub

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1961 the nearby Shears Green House was converted into a permanent pub and renamed the Battle of Britain. It was a large ex-Charringtons estate pub - the kind that grew up alongside Britain's postwar housing developments - with multiple bars, function rooms, a big garden and a ...

Image: Chris Whippet | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: October 2016

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0. The pub closed suddenly. Within days, Putnam Construction Services arrived on site, acting for the landowners Brakspear brewery and their consultants the Caldecotte Group, and began demolishing the building. No planning permission had been granted. Gravesham Borough Council subse...

Image: Chris Whippet | CC BY-SA 2.0

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: Brick by Brick - Just Not Here

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lexicon10uk, CC BY-SA 4.0. CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, pointed to the recent Carlton Tavern case in London. The Carlton had been illegally demolished in 2015 by developers; following a public inquiry, the developers were ordered to rebuild the pub brick by brick, on the same site, to the original spe...

Image: Lexicon10uk | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Britain, Northfleet: Squadron Manor

Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Chris Whippet, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 2024 Frontier Estates sold the 1.16-acre plot to a care home developer. Planning permission was granted for a 75-bedroom facility named Squadron Manor, being built by Morar Living, scheduled to open in 2026. The name nods to what stood there before - a quiet acknowledgement, i...

Image: Chris Whippet | CC BY-SA 2.0