More than a decade since it closed its doors to the public for the final time, work on the restoration of the Grade II-listed Leas Pavilion has finally begun.

The former tea room, theatre and bar is being saved as part of a high-end residential development of sea-view apartments, and we sent reporter Rhys Griffiths to find out more about the project...

There is something slightly haunting about walking into the Leas Club - as my generation knew it - after all these years.

The balconies along each side of the room, the central staircase sweeping down towards the former dance floor, the now-empty space where once we jostled for pints at the bar - there are plenty of memories flooding back as we descend into the centre of this former Folkestone theatre which is now a building site.

For years the town watched as the abandoned building gradually decayed, falling into disrepair but never losing its grandeur. A long campaign was fought to save the building, both local people and celebrities joining together to ensure the building was once again open to the public.

Now, after all these years, builders are finally on site and starting the work of restoring this grand old landmark to its former glories. Work being made possible by integrating the existing Pavilion, which sits largely below street level, into a larger development of luxury flats above.

The project is being delivered by developers Gustavia, who have worked with Hythe-based architects Hollaway Studio to create a plan which will interwine both the old and the new.

Selahattin Yalcin, development director at Gustavia, is keen to show us around and seems genuinely passionate about the mission to restore the building.

"For us it was the key element, to keep the Pavilion as a focus of the development rather than seeing it as a sort of side project or a headache," he said.

"This to us is the beauty of the whole building.

"When it's finished, it's there to stand the test of time. This building is over 100 years old - we need to make sure when we finish with it, it's going to stay for another 100 years."

First opened in 1902 as an Edwardian tea room, the Leas Pavilion later became a home for repertory theatre, with its last ever performance taking place in August 1985. It then became the Leas Club, a bar with pool and snooker tables, and even a small ten-pin bowling alley.

Its listing on the Historic England register notes its role as a social space during the First World War, and praises the entrance for its "special architectural merit for its high quality moulded terracotta work, ironwork grilles and attached verandah and for its Art Nouveau style stained glass".

Now hidden behind hoardings erected to enclose the building site, the front elevation of the building is undergoing careful reconstruction which will see the entire front of the building dismantled and removed to a workshop while structural work is carried out on site.

"You have got the terracotta stone, which is original, that's cladding the front of the Pavilion," Mr Yalcin explains.

"There are a lot of damaged pieces and, because of the structure behind it not being strong enough and in need of repairs, we can't do those repairs while that stone is there otherwise it's going to cause further damage.

"So the methodology is currently that we are cleaning it and then each stone is going to be numbered individually and they're going to be carefully dismantled piece by piece and taken off to a workshop.

"While they're repairing those in the workshop we are going to be doing the structural strengthening works on the structure itself.

"When the new structure is ready the terracotta stone - nice, shiny and cleaned - the original pieces will come back and get cladded so that hopefully it's going to look like when it was built in 1902."

Since its closure in 2010, the building has been included in a number of 'at risk' registers of landmarks that have fallen into dereliction.

The Friends of the Leas Pavilion (FLP) was established in March 2015 to lead the campaign to save the building and once again make it "a thriving creative space" which is accessible to the community.

"We are fully aware of the importance of this building to Folkestone and the general public," Mr Yalcin said. "We feel passionate about it as well - despite the perception of developers, in it for money.

"We do like heritage buildings and we do like these sort of projects, however challenging they may be.

"As part of the planning approval we have a commitment to give use of the Pavilion area up to 100 days a year for community events.

"We want the Pavilion to be a live space, we don't just want to create a space, refurbish it and just leave it. We want this area to be full with people every day, be it residents or the community."

Tasked with turning this vision into a reality is the team at Hollaway Studio, which is behind many local projects such as the harbour-side Rocksalt restaurant and the F51 skate park.

Alex Richards, partner at the firm who has led the Leas Pavilion project, was on hand to explain some of the challenges the building has thrown up.

"I think what makes it tricky is to make the old and new complement each other," he said.

"Fundamentally the residential needs to happen to enable this [redevelopment] and it needs to have a style of architecture that says 'I'm here, and I'm new, and I'm exciting' but equally complements the heritage and they work together

"That's a wonderful narrative but we need to build a building and not just do a drawing.

"So weaving in the structure from above through the heritage asset below has absolutely been the challenge.

"We know what we want to build, and we know it's going to look beautiful, but we need to make sure we're deliverable. And that's been the test."

Financing the restoration of the former theatre has been enabled by the residential scheme above, where sea-view apartments will wrap around and tower above the Pavilion itself.

Residents of the new development - which will feature a gym, car parking and a concierge service - will be able to use the communal space on days when it is not booked out for use by the community.

Prices for the smallest one-bedroom flats start at around £300,000, with significantly larger three-bed penthouses are set to cost would-be residents in excess of £2 million.

What does Mr Yalcin say to those who argue this kind of development is simply not within the reach of local people?

"We have already done some pre-sales and roughly half of the reservations we have had so far are local, and the other half are a mixture of investors or people living in the Kent area but not necessarily in Folkestone, or people from London buying it as a summer house.

"So there is a mixture, and there is a lot of interest from Folkestone.

"I can understand the reaction to the price, but we are offering a product that doesn't exist in Folkestone at the moment."

Certainly these new homes - which should be completed in September 2024 - are far out of reach for those already struggling to make ends meet during an escalating cost of living crisis.

But they do represent a vote of confidence in Folkestone's ongoing regeneration and the attraction of seaside living in a post-pandemic era.

And if the cost of restoring the much-loved Leas Pavilion for the wider community is the block of high-end apartments above, many will consider it a price worth paying once its doors are reopened to the public.