Maidstone's Grade I palace would host up to 250 weddings a year and 180 guests under a council plan, with 59 Mill Street car park spaces reserved.
Maidstone Borough Council has applied for permission to turn the Archbishop’s Palace into a commercial wedding venue expected to hold 150 to 250 weddings a year.
The application was validated on 11 September and the council’s own planning service has until 6 November to decide it. The register records the expected decision level as a delegated decision, which means officers would sign it off rather than councillors on the planning committee (Mid Kent planning register, 26/503260/FULL).
The council is the applicant and the owner. A separate listed building consent application, 26/503261/LBC, covers the same works. Both carry 199 documents.
What the operator says it will do
The tenant named in the application is KOA Holdings Ltd, whose letter to the council gives an address in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire. It says it will enter into a contract with the council once the renovation is done and “operate a high end wedding venue here for the foreseeable future”.
From the operator’s own statement:
- 150 to 250 weddings a year once the venue is established
- 40 to 100 guests at most weddings during the day, with up to 50% more in the evening
- couples get exclusive use of the Palace, the herb garden and the riverside terrace
- it may operate any day of the year, and expects weekends and bank holidays to be the busiest
- the building will be open free to the public at least two days a year for heritage events, such as Heritage Open Week in September
- on other days it may run open days or private viewings for prospective customers
- event days start at about 8am; staff otherwise work 8am to 6pm; couples staying over use only the wedding night suite
The transport assessment puts the building’s capacity higher than the typical booking. It says the venue “seeks to provide for up to 120 guests for the wedding and dining places, with a party area to accommodate a maximum of 180 guests total”, needing between 11 and 21 staff depending on the booking.
59 public car parking spaces would be set aside
This is the part most likely to be felt by people who do not go to a wedding there. The Palace itself has three parking spaces in the scheme. The rest comes from the public car park next door.
The transport assessment says parking has been identified in “a significantly underutilised car park at the eastern most section of the Mill Street Car Park”, which “can accommodate up to 59 car parking spaces”. That gives the venue 63 spaces in total.
If those fill up, the assessment points to the rest of Mill Street, Palace Avenue and College Road car parks, which it counts as 178 bays between them, and says even 10% of that would be enough. Our guide to parking in Maidstone covers the town centre tariffs.
Music would have to stop outside by 6pm
A music break-out assessment was submitted with the application. It identifies the nearest homes as Bishop’s Terrace and Len House to the north, and the former alms houses and houses on College Avenue to the south.
Its recommendations, which it says can all be imposed as planning conditions:
- music and amplified speech inside the Solar, the Main Hall and the Reception, with windows kept shut while music plays
- noise levels logged throughout wedding parties
- low level live music or ceremony music in the herb garden, the alcove and the riverside terrace only until 6pm
- background recorded music outside until 11pm, through small speakers spread around, with any on the riverside terrace pointed away from the river
- no acoustic upgrade to the building itself is needed
The assessment measured background sound to the south of the Palace at about 45 decibels during the day, falling to about 40 by 11pm and 35 by 1am. It concludes there is “no noise-related reason to withhold planning permission”.
Why the council is doing this
The Palace has been council property since 1904. The heritage statement submitted with the application sets out what happened next: a major repair programme from 1985 to 1992, then a museum that “proved unviable”, then use as the Kent Register Office and Coroner’s Court, which moved to a new site at the end of 2022.
The council voted in early 2024 to commit funds for the landlord’s work needed before a commercial operator could take it on.
Those works are running late. The council’s own first-quarter capital monitoring, which we reported in August, expects £1.296m of the Palace budget to slip into 2027/28, with the contract still being let and the works now planned for early 2027 (our report on the capital budget). The operator’s letter says it takes the building on “following renovation works”, so the wedding venue depends on that programme.
The site is not one building but a cluster of protected ones:
- the Archbishop’s Palace, Grade I listed, list entry 1336232
- the Dungeon, or Undercroft, Grade II* listed and on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register
- the Gatehouse, Grade II listed and a scheduled monument, now vacant after use as a tourist information centre and then offices
- the Tithe Barn, Grade I listed and also scheduled
Ruined walls attached to the Dungeon are believed to date from about 1100, which the heritage statement calls the earliest known above-ground construction in Maidstone. Repairs to the Dungeon are the subject of a third application, 26/502750/LBC, validated on 28 July and also still undecided.
What the council’s own advisers objected to
The project went through two pre-application rounds. The heritage statement records that the first, in August and September 2025, “received a cautious response from the Maidstone Planners and Historic England”, though the principle of the use was accepted. The points raised were:
- the lift and accessible toilet planned on the first floor in the Withdrawing Room, with the floor needing to be opened up to see whether the joists are medieval
- removing a 1990s rebuilt partition in the Solar
- raising the floor in the Marriage Room
- a new staircase from reception into the Marriage Room, with a warning not to create an “18th century inspired design”
- parts of the interior design where they touch historic fabric
- the future of the Dungeon as a building at risk
- the terrace beyond the Dungeon, and its effect on views of the Palace and the parish church
- landscaping, bins and parking in front of the Palace
The second pre-application, in January 2026, was “more positive though it raised some concerns”. Historic England recommended splitting the urgent repairs into their own application, which is what 26/502750/LBC is.
The heritage statement accepts the scheme would cause what planning policy calls “less than substantial harm”, and argues it is outweighed by securing the buildings in viable use.
What it means for you
The council’s documents describe the plan as “widening public access for all” and say the site and its interiors would be “made more accessible to the public when no weddings are on”. The operator’s own statement puts a number on the free public access: at least two days a year.
Both statements are in the same application. Anyone who wants that number tested, or who has a view on the parking, the music hours or the alterations, can comment on the planning file. Comments go through the Mid Kent register, and the determination deadline is 6 November 2026. Our Maidstone planning applications guide explains how to search the register and how to object.
Sources
- Mid Kent planning register: 26/503260/FULL (change of use, validated 11 September 2026, applicant Maidstone Borough Council, agent Innes Associates, delegated decision, determination deadline 6 November 2026)
- Mid Kent planning register: 26/503261/LBC (listed building consent for the same works, validated 4 September 2026)
- Mid Kent planning register: 26/502750/LBC (repairs and stabilisation of the Dungeons, validated 28 July 2026)
- Operational Statement by KOA Holdings Ltd, document library for 26/503260/FULL (wedding numbers, guest numbers, opening days, public access)
- Transport Assessment including Travel Plan, same document library (capacity of 120 and 180, 11 to 21 staff, three spaces at the Palace, 59 at Mill Street, 178 bays nearby)
- Music Break-out Assessment, same document library (nearest homes, background sound levels, outdoor music cut-offs)
- Heritage Statement, July 2026, same document library (ownership since 1904, register office move at the end of 2022, council funding vote in early 2024, list entries and grades, pre-application responses, less than substantial harm)
Have your say