The Garden Gate McDonald's on Old Bromley Road can stay open an hour later, seven nights a week. Councillors voted unanimously on 12 August, with conditions on noise, parking and litter.
The McDonald’s at The Garden Gate, on the corner of Old Bromley Road and Ashgrove Road in Downham, can now trade until 1am every night. Lewisham’s Planning Committee B voted unanimously on Wednesday 12 August to allow the extra hour, and the decision notice was issued on 14 August.
Since the drive-thru was built in 2011, a planning condition has required the restaurant to close between midnight and 6am. The new condition moves the closing time back by one hour. The premises must still be shut between 1am and 6am.
What was decided
The application, reference DC/26/143004, was submitted by Savills for McDonald’s on 16 February 2026. It asked to vary condition 4 of a 2014 permission that had reconfigured the drive-thru lane. According to the officer’s report, the company said the extra hour was needed “to meet the needs of its customer base” and that comparable restaurants show demand from passing trade at that time.
The restaurant has been on the site of the former Garden Gate pub since 1999. Sports fields lie behind it, and houses to the north, south and west.
Ten objections, all on problems residents say already exist
The council wrote to neighbours on 2 March 2026 and received 10 responses, all objections. Officers noted that the objectors’ complaint was not that the extra hour would create new problems but that it would make existing ones worse:
- drivers going the wrong way on the one-way stretch of Old Bromley Road, and the risk of collisions
- litter, with objectors saying the company’s daily litter patrols no longer take place
- noise, people gathering outside, and cars parked in nearby roads playing loud music
One objector argued the extra hour was unnecessary because there is already a 24-hour McDonald’s in Catford. Officers replied that the Catford branch has no bearing on this application.
The report also records that the council holds no accident records for the site, and that its Safer Communities team had received no complaints about anti-social behaviour, noise or littering by customers. The highways team and Transport for London raised no objection.
What the noise survey found
McDonald’s commissioned a noise assessment, with monitoring on the night of 9 to 10 September 2025 from 11pm to 12.30am and again from 5.30am to 7am. Unattended meters were placed near 146 Old Bromley Road and 10 Ashgrove Road.
The busiest scenario it modelled for the extra hour was 50 customers: 22 at the drive-thru, 11 delivery collections, 12 in the car park and 5 on foot. Its conclusions, as summarised in the report:
- extra vehicle movements would add about 1.5 decibels, below the level people notice
- car door slams could reach 66 decibels outside bedrooms, with “potential for sleep disturbance” unless mitigated
- the order point nearest 10 Ashgrove Road would be silent after midnight
- the kitchen extract fan is already audible and should be run more slowly
Officers accepted that customers might park on nearby streets and slam doors closer to homes than the survey assumed. They said that happens on the public highway, outside the restaurant’s control, and cannot be regulated by a planning condition. Their answer was a monitoring condition instead.
The conditions attached
The permission carries eight conditions. Between midnight and 1am they require that:
- no customers park on site; only delivery drivers may use the designated “delivery partners only” area, which is about 39 metres from the nearest home
- the drive-thru order point closest to 10 Ashgrove Road stays switched off, with its lighting and signage dark
- the premises noise management plan is followed in full
- for 12 months, from three months after the later hours begin, the restaurant keeps a record of every noise complaint about car doors, engines, idling, delivery drivers or amplified music, and hands it to the council on request
- if the council has substantiated evidence of harm, McDonald’s must submit a late-night noise mitigation scheme within a month
Before the extra hour can start, the company must also get the council’s written approval for a litter control strategy, covering patrol schedules and bins, and for how it will enforce the parking restriction. The applicant told officers that daily litter patrols do take place and that staff will wear high-visibility jackets so that neighbours can see them.
What it means for you
If you live on Ashgrove Road, Old Bromley Road or the streets behind, the change is one hour, seven nights a week, and it applies to the drive-thru and delivery collections rather than the dining room car park. The conditions give you a route: noise complaints made in the first year after the later hours begin have to be logged, and the council can demand a further mitigation scheme if the evidence supports it.
Complaints about noise from the premises go to Lewisham’s environmental protection team. Problems with parking or driving on the surrounding roads are a highways matter, not a planning one; our guide to parking in Lewisham sets out who to contact.
For comparison, the Lewisham High Street McDonald’s has no planning restriction on its hours at all. In June the council confirmed by certificate that its 1988 permission carried no hours condition, so 24-hour trading there is lawful without any application. The Garden Gate restaurant is different because its 2011 drive-thru consent set the midnight limit.
The full report, the site plan and the committee presentation are on the council’s page for Planning Committee B on 12 August. Our guide to planning applications in Lewisham explains how to comment on future applications in your area.
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