Asda is facing opposition to plans for a mini-supermarket in Blackheath Village – with 72 residents and the local amenity society lodging objections to an alcohol licence.

The retail giant has applied for a premises licence for the old Lloyds Bank on the corner of Bennett Park. It hopes to sell alcohol from 7am to 11pm. 

The Blackheath Society and scores of locals have filed objections to Asda Express having a licence with a committee of Greenwich councillors due to hear the application next week. 

Concerns raised include “noise from patrons leaving other venues, such as The Railway public house opposite, who may use the premises late at night and cause noise disturbance, or from delivery vehicles operating late at night, which may impact on the sleep of local residents, and of young children in particular, who live close to the premises”, according to council documents.

Lloyds Bank closed
Tha banking hall was an extension to the much grander Alexandra Hall, which occupied the site a century ago. Image: The Greenwich Wire

Asda had originally applied for 6am-to-midnight opening hours – although with no alcohol sales after 11pm – but have agreed with police to cut the hours back if a licence is granted. 

Five locals wrote in support of the plans. Until recently, none of the major supermarket chains were represented in Blackheath Village, which straddles the boundary between Greenwich and Lewisham borough. 

Morrisons took over the McColls convenience store chain two years ago – but at present the only convenience store in the village that opens late is the pricey independent shop  Shepherd Foods, opposite the station. 

Lloyds closed in May 2020 and the following year the upmarket bakery chain Ole & Steen applied to Greenwich to alter the premises. Its application was refused but a planning inspector approved the scheme on appeal in August 2022. 

Morrisons Daily sign
Morrisons was the first supermarket chain to arrive in recent years. Image: The Greenwich Wire

Permission for further alterations to create a new entrance was only given last month, after a previous application was refused.  

The unassuming building has some historical significance as the site of the grander Alexandra Hall, built in 1863 as swimming baths but soon converted into a meeting hall. 

After a plan to turn it into a cinema failed, the building was sold to Lloyds Bank in 1928 and an extension built for the banking hall, and some of its decorative features were removed. 

There are now no banks in Blackheath Village after Barclays closed in November 2022. That branch is now being converted into a medical aesthetics clinic.

A Greenwich licensing sub-committee will hear the application on Thursday October 3.

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