Let's all pitch together and buy this house

[NowSissyThatWalk]

www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/54881775?fbclid=IwAR2K99YTdvH5FryjYlkpRZ37AiSBMDz6HRxkMGx1Atf7rxWx5f2_AZPizp8

What a fixer upper!
I actually find the photos quite sad. It's obviously been used as a squat house for some years. Really hope whoever gets it gets it back to its former glory.

Some developer will probably buy it and turn it in to luxury flats

The Welsh government has just overturned the local authority, so planning for conversion to 54 flats has been refused.

The same property company has owned it since the 1970's; guess they've finally got fed up.

@serenada
How ironic

I need 4 beds so I’ll chip in £26K

I wouldn’t give a penny
I’d donate a spade or two though !

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.

I WANT it ....

@Samsirtch

was it a school? A home?

This is what annoys the shit of of me with listed buildings. They want them to be restored to how they were originally, which is usually ridiculously more expensive, but this building's grade 2 listing has been it's death warrant.
Surely making it into flats and preserving the exterior and certain things like the main staircase, whilst modernising the rest would be preferential to allowing to rot. Keeping it alive as beautiful flats with period detailing, high ceilings etc.

This it just pointless.

I suspect the person living there is to prevent squatters and for security.

It was a convent

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_House

And then an approved school!

I second the idea of a retreat serenada - just imagine how such a set-up would help the mental health of thousands of caregivers and children who need respite. In Germany they used to allow people with burn out to go on 'Kur' - a three week break partly paid by health insurance, it got much stricter I think the last few years (I never applied for one, in hindsight I should have) but the idea was sound.

Can you imagine the difference? Just a break for the parents where they could still be with their children but just switch off from the care for a short time.

There was a charity called Winged Fellowship that used to organise something similar I think. Life saver or some people (esp on low incomes).

I'd give each family vouchers that they could spend as they wanted. One 6 week break in the summer holidays or 5 long weekend breaks. that kind of thing.

Alternatively, you could run it as a profit making business (spa, etc) for part of the year and use that to subsidise the retreat for families.

Discount for mumsnetters

Why on earth have the council refused planning? The only way to save that building is to make it into luxury apartments (and think of all the council tax they could get) I don’t imagine there are many multi millionaires knocking around who want to buy it restore it and use it as their home and no one from the hospitality business will be investing now either.

I would love to buy this, along with a few like minded single, widowed or divorced 60+ ladies, and turn it into a place we could all share. Independent living areas, but communal areas too- a bar, dining room, gym, guest suites (so family could come and stay) etc.We could all share the gardens and their upkeep and live happily there into our dotage, growing veg and drinking gin, knowing there was always someone nearby to help and support us. We could bequeath our share, or sell it, to like minded ladies when the time came. Would be lovely. Think I have had too much wine and entered fantasy land ........

@Iamalltheyhavenow

The nuns beat you to that idea

I think they were on to something, you know. Vow of silence, a bit of gardening and cooking. I could do that. No pension worries.

@Iamalltheyhavenow

Actually, I remember reading about a group of women in London who did this by setting up their own housing association.

I'll try and find it.

www.telegraph.co.uk/property/uk/sisters-retired-women-built-community/

It's got a fairly sad past.

I bet it's haunted...👻👻👻
That bedroom looks like a set from inside number 9 😱

@serenada what a wonderful idea.

I love the idea of a group of women just congregating together and just supporting each other too. It would be a utopia I'm sure of it!

Good point regarding Grade II listed status and the lack of possibilities this gives it, I'd never thought of that. Of course we'd all love to have it used as what it was originally intended but I can't imagine that's realistic anymore

When I win the lottery this week I'll pitch in but can we extend the retreat to parents of children with mental health problems too please? Sleeping under the stars sounds wonderful!

Whatsnewpussyhat

Completely agree. The only realistic alternative for that building would be to keep at as is and have a zombie run.

Gives me the creeps.

Reminds me a bit of what happened with Highcliffe Castle - the owners wanted permission to demolish, and there was a "mysterious" fire just after it was refused. They left it to rot after that. Eventually bought by local authority and restored: www.highcliffecastle.co.uk/visit/history/

There's definitely hope. Another similar property, Crookham Court, was a private school which closed after the owner and several teachers were convicted for abuse, and the owner refused to sell for decades, so it became a ruin.

But it has now been beautifully renovated and is high level serviced apartments with a wedding venue:

From this: www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/this-abandoned-school-in-berkshire-is-as-creepy-as-it-gets

To this:

www.phoenixapartments.co.uk/portfolio/pinchington-hall/

And also:

www.getreading.co.uk/news/property/abandoned-berkshire-school-set-become-18277689

Obviously now is not a good time to start up projects like this, but it can be done. (With a lot of money.)

I’m thinking now it should be a general retreat - open to anyone.
So, a retreat for mental health when instead of people sitting in rooms catching up on sleep they have the option to learn some new hobbies - something simple and easy that they could do at home as stress relief/switch off.

Then for parents with SEN children there would be round the clock provision for the children, freeing the parents up todo whatever they want. They would meet up in the evening for a dinner or walk and it would just take the exhaustion out of the day for the parents so that they could recharge.

For single women, I would have the top floor as HQ for our plans to solve all the worlds problems. We are the best people to do this as we are uncumbered by childcare responsibilities and as women, we know what an almighty cock up the men have done.

We will have specialist teams working on domestic and international policies garnering the collective wisdom both theoretical and practical of our years of experience. We will build policies out of this, (can flesh the ideas out in the on-site pub) and once we are rereads we will produce them in ‘A manifesto for the future’.

Then we’ll put our feet up and drink tea.

There was an interesting story in Ireland during the 2008 crisis about a swanky hotel that went bankrupt. I think the employees got together and bought it and kept it on successfully running at a profit.

Some times these breaks in normality are actually cracks that let the light shine through.