The freehold for St Lawrence College in Ramsgate has been listed for sale with price on application.
Agents Sanderson Weatherall, London are marketing the entire site, which includes 16.39 acres housing school buildings, the Grade II listed chapel with a further 36.23 acres of sports grounds.
The site also comprises astroturf, netball / tennis courts and staff and visitor parking and a series of cricket and rugby pitches.
Buildings include the main school, chapel, Taylor Hall Theatre, the headmaster’s house and The Lodge and teaching blocks.
St Lawrence College went into administration with notice filed with the courts on April 8.
The college shut with immediate effect apart from for students in Years 11 and 13 who will stay until exams are completed. The college has some 500 students.
Sadly 166 employees were made redundant, with 44 kept on to support exam-year students.
School governors said the college had faced “sustained and significant financial pressure over a number of years. Declining pupil numbers, the introduction of VAT on school fees, rising operating costs and broader economic uncertainty.”
The administration came on the heels of a tumultuous few weeks for staff, students and their families.
In February it emerged that St Lawrence College planned to shut its Ramsgate site in July and move to Dover College from September as part of a merger under the umbrella of the Repton Family of Schools.
The news provoked a huge backlash with protests from students, families and community groups that use the college facilities. A fight fund to pay for a legal challenge and a petition were also raised.
In March Governors of the college announced a halt to merger plans with a view to reconsidering options for the independent school.
A letter to parents said the college was “actively pursuing” a way forward with meetings taking place to secure “a long-term” future for the college.
A further letter that month said St Lawrence College had signed a formal agreement for a new partnership, adding: “While further legal work is still required before a final agreement is completed, this step represents a clear and positive commitment to working together to safeguard the future and longevity of St Lawrence College.”
Just three weeks later the St Lawrence governors announced that the college had gone into administration.
Now the administrators have ordered the sale of the historic site as well as its additional holdings in College Road and Holly Road.
‘The Grange’ on the north side of College Road, the former Hollicondane pub on the corner of College Road and Holly Road, land to the rear of 9 – 13 College Road and a former staff house in College Road are all on offer alongside the main college site.
The agents say: “We are inviting unconditional offers for the Freehold interest, subject to contract and exclusive of VAT. Offers will be invited by way of informal tender.
“Consideration may also be given to a sale of part only.”
The marketing material says it is suitable for ongoing educational use or alternative uses (subject to planning).
Find the listing by clicking here
Before the school entered administration, the Corporation of St Lawrence College registered its “own use” freehold land and buildings on its balance sheet for 2024 at £19.85 million.
The value of the massive 51-acre site, if a developer successfully secures planning permission, could exceed £25 million because high-density housing potential may drive the value upwards. However, because of the administration status a much lower figure may be accepted and it has been suggested offers in the region of £7m would be accepted – less than the college’s listed liabilities (2024) of £7.52m.
It would make a better place for affordable housing or apartments than building on arable farmland.
Absolutely a disgrace I hope those incompetent imbeciles who allowed this to happen are held to account.
I understand the Chatham house school is thinking of taking it over with KCC approval and in turn Chatham sites will be sold for development.
I promise you we don’t have the money for that at CCGS – we can barely afford paper and basic stationery, let alone a new site! We are currently undergoing govt-funded renovation work for efficient heating, lighting etc and are having a new science block at the Chatham site, but I do not believe that we are exploring taking over SLC.
i bet they will need a bulldozer to push some of the envelopes with this one ?
I don’t think CCGS need to have the money to buy St Lawrence College, if those in the Reform party at KCC have any sense they will put the money up to buy an excellent school and all its facilities including a new £7 million science block. CCGS buildings are all over the place and not fit for purpose.
We are a Single-Academy Trust, which means we receive all funding from the Department for Education directly, and KCC have no role in our school, other than the standard Local Authority duty of Child Protection.
As for our sites not being fit for purpose, they are all within a few minutes walk of each other, and the only building in need of replacement is being replaced in a few years. The rest of the school is undergoing extensive renovation as we speak. As for SLC, some of their facilities (those they don’t advertise 😉) are in dire need of renovation, and maintaining a site so vast would cost far more than any state school could ever afford.
It would probably make a good prison, not for hardened or violent types, and some of the teaching staff could be taken on as Wardens!
The only surprise in this is the speed of the placing of the site on the market.
Someone is going to make a tidy fortune out of thie sorry episode.
I always understood that St Lawrence’s was part of an Evangelical? group of HMC schools set up as an alternative to Woodward Schools like Lancing ?