Former school and hospital that treated WW1 parents in urgent need of repair – South London News

Activists are calling on a council to undertake urgent repairs to a historic buildingwhich previously housed a school and a hospital before falling into disrepair.

The structure on Cormont Road, opposite Myatt’s Fields Park in Brixton, has been added to The Victorian Society’s 10 Endangered Buildings of 2024 list.

Society – a charity dedicated to fighting for Victorian and Edwardian heritage – appeals Lambeth Council to immediately undertake restoration work to preserve the historic structure.

Griff Rhys Jones, president of the Victorian Society, said: “This is one of those dilemmas that just seems confusing. How come this building can’t be reused? Recycled? Why can’t it be sold?

“Lots of distinguished old sites have been successfully repurposed for housing or commercial use. To allow this noble structure to deteriorate simply through neglect is surely bad and wasteful policy.”

The former school, originally known as St Gabriel’s College, is a symmetrical Grade II listed building of seven sections, built in 1912 by TJ Bailey.

Commissioned as part of London’s first general hospital in 1914, the building housed writer and campaigner Vera Brittain’s first posting when she served as a nurse for the Voluntary Aid Detachment.

The building became a center for the medical treatment and rehabilitation of wounded men during the First World War, including the Testament of Youth author’s own brother, who was wounded at the Battle of the Somme.

After the war, the building reverted to schooling thousands of south Londoners, before being renamed Kennington Boys’ School after the Second World War and later Charles Edward Brooke Girls’ School.

In 2012 the building became vacant after the girls’ school was moved to nearby premises and has been on the Historic England Register at Risk since 2016, when its condition was recorded as poor.

By the time of the Historic Register of English Heritage in 2023, its condition had deteriorated to “very poor”.

A survey commissioned by Lambeth council in March 2016 found that water ingress had caused significant internal damage.

Work to make the building wind and water tight has been identified as urgently needed since 2016. Remedial work was scheduled to take place in 2023, but no action has been taken.

James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, said: “London has a rich heritage of Victorian and Edwardian schools and this example by the prolific TJ Bailey is particularly splendid.

“Appropriately described as a building of ‘romance and fantasy’, its grand spiers, towers, dormers and Dutch gables combine to a fun, kaleidoscopic effect.

“This is a building of enormous historical and architectural significance and is a landmark in the Mine Conservation Area, in a pleasant and desirable area of ​​London, within striking distance of the city centre.

“It is also one with enormous potential for re-use, which the Local Authority must make an absolute priority.”

A spokesman for Lambeth Council said: “

A spokesman for Lambeth Council said: “The building was handed over to the council three years ago in a very poor condition and requires very extensive restoration work.