Anytime Fitness wants to open a new gym in the former Poundland unit on Sidcup High Street
A plan to open a 24-hour gym on Sidcup High Street is among several notable planning applications recently submitted to Bexley Council.
Proposals to re-open a mosque, demolish a dilapidated working men’s club to make way for housing and expand a Traveller site have also been lodged with the South East London authority.
Anytime Fitness wants to open a new gym at 35–37 Sidcup High Street. The unit is vacant following Poundland’s closure in November 2025. The gym would be open to users 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Anytime has said that full planning permission is not required as the site’s use falls under the same category as the previous commercial one used by Poundland.
It is seeking a Certificate of Lawfulness from Bexley to establish that the site would be in lawful use as a Class E commercial unit with no restrictions on hours of operation. This planning application can be viewed on Bexley Council’s planning portal at reference 26/01548/LDCP.
7-flat plan for Sidcup High Street
Just down the road at 60-64 Sidcup High Street, funeral directors W. Uden & Sons wants to build a new commercial unit as well as seven flats in a two-storey block above.
The South East London funeral business, established in 1881, recently purchased the former Lloyds bank building next door to its Sidcup branch. It has submitted a planning application (26/01540/FUL) to demolish its current home as well as the bank to make way for a larger unit and the seven new homes.
Welling mosque wants to reopen
In Welling, a planning application reopen a 100-person capacity mosque on the first floor of 51 Upper Wickham Lane—above Pizza Hut and Red Barber Shop—has been submitted (26/01537/FUL).
The property operated as a religious centre from 2021. In 2023, following a noise complaint, Bexley planners visited the mosque and informed the Ofma Educational Foundation that the property required a change of use application to continue operating as a place of worship.
Operations ceased in June 2024 and an official change of use application was submitted four months later. This was later withdrawn due to fire risk issues. The new application has added fire safety alterations—such as a new staircase and fire exit—in order to address these safety concerns.
HMO owner wants to add more rooms
Elsewhere in Bexley, the owner of a six-bedroom HMO has applied to extend the property to accommodate two more rooms for a second time after their initial attempt to do this was refused at appeal.
M Azram has submitted another planning application to extend 17 Park Crescent in Erith (26/01539/FUL). Their initial proposal to do this was refused by Bexley Council last December, and an appeal lodged against the refusal was turned down in April.
This new application aims to address concerns raised by the planning inspector, altering the design of the proposed roof extension from the previously refused application. The application has received nine objections from neighbours since being submitted earlier this month.
9 flats at old working men’s club
Plans to demolish the derelict Erith Working Men’s Club on Valley Road and replace it with a two-storey block with nine flats has been submitted by C Henry of Erith Residency Limited (26/01531/FUL).
An initial proposal to do this was presented to Bexley Council late last year but was withdrawn to “deliver a more conventional and family-orientated housing offer”. Eight of the nine dwellings would be two-bedroom flats in the new application, while the final apartment contains three bedrooms.
Sidcup Traveller site expansion
A proposal to retain and expand a Traveller site just north of the A20 by DFS Sidcup has also been submitted (26/01306/FUL). The site, which is off Watery Lane, would be expanded by just over an acre to accommodate five static caravans, one purpose-built dayroom and associated infrastructure.
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