Brixton Victorian school faces ruin amid £1.5m repair bill

The council said it would look at other ways of funding the expensive renovation.

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 an entertaining kaleidoscopic effect.

“This is a building of enormous historical and architectural importance and is a landmark in the Minet Conservation Area, in a pleasant and desirable part of London, within striking distance of the city centre.

“It is also one with enormous potential for reuse, which the local authority must make an absolute priority.”

During the First World War, the 127-year-old building served as London’s first general hospital, alongside the adjacent St Gabriel’s Teacher Training College.

The famous writer Vera Brittain, author of Testament of Youth, she was a nurse there. The author’s brother, who was wounded at the Battle of the Somme, was among the thousands of soldiers treated at the site.

After the war, the building was renamed the Kennington School for Boys and later the Charles Edward Brooke School for Girls.