◆ Sevenoaks · since 1730 · Lexcel & CQS accredited
Knocker & Foskett began practice on the Sevenoaks High Street in 1730, fifty-eight years before Jane Austen visited her great-uncle four doors down at The Red House. We have not left the building. Today, sixteen lawyers and administrators work from one of the two pre-Georgian Grade II* listed offices on the High Street, led by Christopher Hugo, Senior Partner since 2019.
The Red House, 50 High Street · built 1686 for John Couchman of Tooting · home to the firm since the firm has been the firm.
Practice areas · four desks, one building
We have deliberately not opened satellites. The Red House sits four doors down from where Dr Fuller, pharmacist, was practising in 1688, and the firm has acted for High Street families and Knole-estate clients without leaving it.
Property
CQS-accredited conveyancing for sales, purchases and re-mortgages across Sevenoaks and the Weald. Fixed-band fees published, leasehold supplements declared up front. Commercial property by James Pearson, Partner. Sale and purchase from £1,400 to £3,000 plus VAT; re-mortgages from £1,000 plus VAT.
Felicity Williams · Elizabeth Connell · Karthiga Mayooran · Karen Copping · James Pearson
Family
Divorce and financial settlement, pension-sharing orders, child arrangements, pre-nuptial agreements, separation, domestic-violence and emergency court applications. Same named partner from first call to final order.
Nicola Gibbs (Head of Department) · Kimberley Catuk
Private Client
Will drafting, estate administration on taxable and non-taxable estates, Lasting Powers of Attorney, inheritance tax planning, contentious probate, Court of Protection deputyships. Sevenoaks families across three and four generations.
Julie Miller · Mary Cheater
Business
Commercial contracts and corporate transactions for owner-managed businesses. Employment work for employers and senior executives: settlement agreements, restrictive covenants, redundancy procedure, TUPE, GDPR subject access, discrimination, unfair dismissal. Commercial litigation and contentious probate.
James Pearson · Chris Hugo · Robert Spokoini · Brian Robson · Finian Davern
Heritage · 1686 · 1730 · 1788
The Red House at 50 High Street was built in 1686 for John Couchman of Tooting, a late-C17th merchant’s townhouse with the narrow end bays typical of the proto-Georgian period. Its first occupant was Dr Fuller, the Sevenoaks pharmacist, who lived and dispensed inside it from 1688 until 1734.
Four years into Dr Fuller’s tenancy, in 1730, a Sevenoaks practice that would later be styled Knocker & Foskett opened its first conveyances on the High Street. The reign of George II was two years old. Robert Walpole was Prime Minister. The Solicitors Regulation Authority would not be founded for another 277 years.
Later in the century the Red House passed to Francis Austen II (1698 to 1791), a Sevenoaks lawyer who had practised at Clifford’s Inn in London, served as Clerk of the Peace for Kent, and acted as parliamentary agent to Lionel Sackville, the first Duke of Dorset, with day-to-day care of the Knole estate a mile up the road. In July 1788 his twelve-year-old great-niece Jane Austen came to lunch at the Red House with her parents and her sister Cassandra. Francis died at the house three years later, aged ninety-three.
A house and garden very delightful.
A visitor to the Red House, 1751
The firm has practised, without break, from this stretch of the High Street ever since: through the Napoleonic Wars, two World Wars, the founding of the SRA in 2007, and every Sevenoaks general election from the 1832 Reform Act forward. We are not a 2026 firm with a historical anecdote. We are the historical anecdote, with a 2026 desk in it.
Specialism · the building is the brief
The Red House is one of Sevenoaks’ two pre-Georgian Grade II* listed buildings (Historic England 1204275). A 1:7:1 brick facade of two storeys with second floor in roof space, a heavy projecting moulded modillioned cornice, sash windows with their original bars intact, a late-C18th pedimented doorcase, ornamental 18th-century cast-iron railings on a brick plinth with carriage gates to the right and left. The Sevenoaks Society rates the building A+ on its town survey.
Owning a listed property in the Sevenoaks conservation area is its own legal trade. The team have spent careers on:
SRA 54258·Lexcel·CQS·Cyber Essentials·QBE PI
Partners · the named lead runs the file
Senior Partner
Employment · Dispute Resolution
Senior Partner since 2019. Joined and made partner in 2000. MA Law, City University.
Partner · COLP
Company & Commercial · Commercial Property
Compliance Officer for Legal Practice.
Partner
Residential Conveyancing
Heads the Property desk.
Partner
Matrimonial & Family
Qualified 2008. Joined K&F 2019.
Plus Elizabeth Connell, Brian Robson, Julie Miller, Karthiga Mayooran, Karen Copping, Kimberley Catuk, Charles Oke, Robert Spokoini, Finian Davern (also independent Notary Public), Mary Cheater and Ayush Gurung. Practice managed by Barry Landa, COFA.
Request a call back · usually same working day
Every enquiry is read by one of the four partners. The same partner will then run the file from instruction to completion. We do not pass enquiries to a centralised intake desk.
Or call us on 01732 459931.
Visit · by pre-booked appointment
Address
The Red House
50 High Street
Sevenoaks
Kent · TN13 1JL
Phone & DX
Tel 01732 459931
Fax 01732 459246
DX 30002 Sevenoaks
Opening
Mon to Fri, by pre-booked appointment. Telephone and video conference also offered.
Closed Saturday and Sunday. Out of hours by arrangement.
Parking
No visitor parking on the forecourt without prior arrangement. Bligh’s and Buckhurst car parks are a four-minute walk; Sevenoaks station a fifteen-minute walk uphill.
FAQ · the questions clients actually ask
Yes. A residential sale or purchase is £1,400 to £3,000 plus VAT, depending on price band, freehold or leasehold, age of the property and complexity of title. A re-mortgage is £1,000 to £2,000 plus VAT. Search packages run £500 to £700, Land Registry deed copies £7 to £20 per document, AML verification £15 to £25 plus VAT, leasehold information fees £300 to £600 per managing organisation. We publish the full schedule online before you instruct.
On average around three months from instruction to completion on a freehold; leasehold purchases take longer because the managing agent and freeholder both have to provide papers. Re-mortgages run roughly two months. We will not commit to a specific date until we have seen the file.
Yes. The named lead opens your file and closes it. Supervision arrangements are published on each service page. Sixteen people work from the Red House, which is small enough that your matter does not get passed between desks.
Yes. Continuous practice since 1730, which makes 2026 the firm’s 296th year. We are the longest-established Kent solicitors and the largest practice in Sevenoaks. The Red House itself was built in 1686 for John Couchman of Tooting, was home to Dr Fuller (pharmacist) and later to Jane Austen’s great-uncle Francis Austen II.
By pre-booked appointment in the Red House on the High Street, or by telephone or video conference if that suits you. There is no visitor parking on the forecourt without prior arrangement; Bligh’s and Buckhurst car parks are a four-minute walk, and Sevenoaks railway station is a fifteen-minute walk uphill.