Peckham Wetherspoons Could Become a Bingo Hall, No Alcohol

A planning application to turn The Kentish Drovers, the Wetherspoon pub at 71 to 79 Peckham High Street, into a bingo hall is open for public comment until 17 September. Southwark validated it on 20 August under reference 26/AP/2487.

The proposal covers the ground floor and basement, which is the whole of the pub. The flats on the upper floors are not part of it. The applicant is LCE Property Ltd, and the agent is Barry Cunningham of Colneside Building Design Consultancy in Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire.

The pub is still open. Wetherspoon’s own pub page still lists it at 8am to midnight, seven days a week, and the applicant’s planning statement records that it “was still in operation on the 03rd July 2026”.

What the bingo hall would be

The change is bigger than swapping one leisure use for another. From the applicant’s own planning statement and premises management plan:

• Opening hours would be 9am to 1am, seven days a week. The pub’s current hours are 8am to midnight, so the venue would open an hour later and shut an hour later.
• No alcohol would be served at all. The management plan says only “complimentary soft drinks and refreshments” will be offered, and that anyone judged to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs will be refused entry.
• Nobody under 18 gets in. Anyone who looks 25 or younger will be asked for ID, and the venue would take two independent test purchase inspections a year.
• At least two trained staff would be on the venue floor whenever it is open.
• A magnetic door lock with remote release would control who comes in, and CCTV would record throughout trading hours and be kept for up to 31 days.
• No change is proposed to the shopfront or the outside of the building.

There would also be a lounge area for people waiting between games. The application is for the planning use only: a bingo venue also needs a premises licence under the Gambling Act 2005, which is a separate application to the council’s licensing team.

Wetherspoon has been trying to sell it since July 2025

The most detailed part of the file is the marketing evidence, because Southwark Plan policy P42 protects public houses unless an applicant can show the pub is no longer viable.

The marketing report in the file is the sale brochure itself, and it is headed “FOR SALE ON BEHALF OF JD WETHERSPOON”. The planning statement sets out what happened:

• CBRE and Savills were jointly instructed on 9 July 2025, at a guide price of £1.0m.
• There was “tentative interest from pub operators but on a reduced pricing basis”, and no transactable bids.
• A known pub operator offered £70,000 a year in rent. That offer was withdrawn in March 2026.
• The property was relaunched in April 2026 at £750,000, and two bids came in at guide, both from private buyers.
• Neither bid was for continued use as a pub, and no staff were to transfer.
• The building did not sell.

The brochure fills in what the pub is. The interest being sold is a long leasehold of 999 years from 11 November 1999 at a peppercorn rent. The ground floor seats about 150, with a rear terrace for about 23 more. Total floorspace is given as 5,639 sq ft, the 2026 rateable value as £50,000 and the EPC rating as B. The existing premises licence allows alcohol until 00:30 Sunday to Thursday and 01:00 on Friday and Saturday.

One figure does not match. The brochure puts the gross internal area at 523.8 sq m; the planning statement describes “some 628sqm” changing use.

Companies House lists one company of that exact name. LCE Property Limited, number 17139526, was incorporated on 7 April 2026, is registered at an office in Croydon, and gives its business as buying and selling and letting its own real estate.

One objection so far

The register records 11 consultees, one of which has responded, and one public comment, an objection lodged on 28 August. It argues that the council commits to protecting pubs unless non-viability is robustly proven, that a bingo hall “caters to a much narrower demographic”, and that the change risks late night noise and a dead frontage in the day.

The applicant’s answer, in the planning statement, is that bingo sits at the “soft end” of the gambling spectrum, that the venues act as social hubs, and that the alternative here is a long-term vacancy on the high street. It notes that the site sits in the Rye Lane Peckham Conservation Area and that the building is not listed.

What it means for you

The pub is trading as normal and nothing changes while the application is decided.

If you want to have a say:

• Comment by 17 September 2026, online through the planning register using reference 26/AP/2487, or by post to Planning Division, PO Box 64529, London SE1 5LX.
• The case officer is Alex Lambert, on 020 7525 1353.
• Southwark’s determination deadline is 14 October 2026, so a decision is unlikely before then.
• Comments have to rest on planning grounds. Loss of a protected pub use, noise and hours, and the effect on the town centre all count. Moral objection to gambling does not.

A grant of planning permission would not by itself allow bingo to be played here. The operator would still need a bingo premises licence from Southwark under the Gambling Act 2005, advertised separately and with its own window for representations.

Related

• Dulwich and Peckham planning news: what is in front of the council now.
• Rye Lane 38 flats: councillors say no: the other Peckham case the borough is arguing over.
• Parking in Dulwich: zone hours and what the council car parks in Peckham cost.

Sources

• Southwark Council planning application 26/AP/2487, validated 20 August 2026: summary, details, dates, comments and documents tabs, read on 31 August 2026.
• The applicant’s planning statement, marketing report and premises management plan, all dated 19 August 2026.
• Southwark’s site notice, displayed 26 August 2026, for the comment deadline and case officer.
• J D Wetherspoon’s page for The Kentish Drovers for the current opening hours.
• Companies House record for LCE Property Limited (17139526).