Lost pubs: The Pilot Tavern

42-43 East Terrace, Gravesend

In 2012 when The Pilot Tavern closed the Gravesend Messenger reported: Its former landlady Susan Newman remained there and rather than tear it down is now hoping to bring the building, which is in dire need of some repair, back to its former glory. Having lived in the area for 27 years, and keen not to move, she said: “It’s a lovely building, but it needs work and I’d like to be able to bring back the beauty it once was. Turning it into flats is the only way I can fund that, while still living here myself.”

Records dating from 1839 talk of a pub on this site, it’s a shame to see it closed after at least 173 years of trading.

This is just one of many pubs to have recently closed in Gravesend. Since the turn of the century 24 pubs in the town have closed their doors for the final time.