Manor Farm Beefeater is believed to be earmarked for closure by Premier Inn owner Whitbread.

The restaurant on High Street, Rainham, is rumoured to shut following the firm’s announcement it is to sell 126 under-performing branches.

Whitbread also plans to convert 112 restaurants into extra hotel rooms.

The move will create more than 3,500 hotel rooms across its estate, but around 1,500 jobs would be axed from its total UK workforce of 37,000 employees.

Whitbread has already sold 21 restaurants for £28 million in the last year.

Customers of Manor Farm Beefeater have said that staff told them about the possible closure of the restaurant.

However, a spokeswoman for Whitbread said the plans were still subject to consultation but the branch in Rainham could be impacted.

The branch remains open as usual and any potential closing date has not yet been confirmed.

The Whitbread spokeswoman added: “We recognise that this will be unsettling for our team members, and we are providing them with dedicated support.

“We are committed to working hard to enable as many as possible of our affected team members to stay with us by either transferring into new roles, or by taking up other vacancies across the business more broadly through our existing recruitment activity.”

Manor Farm was originally built as gas showrooms in around 1928, and was turned into a Beefeater in the 1980s.

The Premier Inn hotel was then added to the site in 2011.

Beefeater is a chain of pub restaurants mainly serving grilled meats, with more than 140 branches across the UK.