A former school building which has been empty for the last decade will be converted into a four-bed family home.
Thanet council has approved the change of use for The Redhouse in Chapel Place which was last used as classrooms for Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School which was formed when the schools merged in 2013.
The Redhouse is an Edwardian property and was originally a home believed to have been built around 1908. Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School acquired the property in the 1960s and up until 2014 had used the house as classrooms for the school. In 2014, the school ceased using the property and since then it has been left empty with no use at all.
Planning documents say The Redhouse is “in some disrepair with window panes boarded up, ivy overgrowing windows and the wood work requiring some repair but otherwise, the property is sound and it is possible to return the property to residential use with no major works, structural or otherwise, required.”
A single storey outbuilding on the property will be demolished. It was last used as a changing room and shower block to the school’s outdoor swimming pool but the pool was removed from the school grounds over 10 years ago and the outbuilding has not been used since.
Bricks from the outbuilding will be used to create a boundary wall.
The Redhouse is not a listed building but does fall within Ramsgate Conservation Area.
Works will be mainly internal to revert the rooms back to living accommodation. External work will mainly consist of repairs and repointing of brickwork, replacing missing tiles and cleaning/repainting or, if necessary, replacing the cast iron gutters and down pipes.
Permission for change of use was given by Thanet council yesterday [August 31].
Does anyone know who the architect was?