Historic Eastbourne house saved from bulldozers

Kempston in Granville Road was due to be knocked down and a block of 16 flats built in its place.

Eastbourne council’s planners had refused the plans but were over ruled by a government planning inspector who gave the green light to the redevelopment by Associated Property Owners, a family-owned property group based in Birkenhead.

But in an about turn revealed this week, it appears that Associated Property Owners has instead agreed to refurbish the property instead of knock it down.

Eastbourne councillor Robert Smart, who represents Meads, said he has spoken to the building’s new general manager Andrew Croft who persuaded the board to refurbish the property rather than demolish it.

Councillor Smart, who leads the Conservative group on Eastbourne council, said, “Andrew Croft has told me what a great building it is and that he intends to bring it back to life once again.”

Mr Smart said contractors have started work on the building and the project is expected to be completed ready for occupancy in the summer.

Campaigners fought to save the Victorian villa after historians discovered it was originally a Red Cross Hospital opened in 1915 by a Mrs Davies-Gilbert and a Miss Helena Catherine Sulman, the commandant of the Red Cross Detachment Sussex/118.

It emerged soldiers from the UK, Europe and Commonwealth countries were brought to Eastbourne from Dover on hospital trains, and nearly 3,000 were treated at the hospital, many receiving successful operations in the operating theatre.

Six soldiers who died at the hospital are commemorated on the First World War memorial at St Saviour’s and St Peter’s Church.