East Sussex charity campaigns to save historic building from housing development

Property investment company Even Group submitted plans to demolish parts of Ashdown House, a mile east of Forest Row, in November last year.

However, the Latrobe Heritage Trust believe the plans for the building, built in 1793, would do ‘irreparable and severe damage’ to a internationally significant structure.

Ashdown House served as a preparatory school for five to 13 year-olds from 1886 to 2020 and was attended by former prime minister Boris Johnson and Golden Globe-winning actor Damien Lewis.

The building was designed by Benjamin Henry Latrobe – the architect of the US Capitol Building and the White House in Washington D.C.

Edward Pinnegar, from the Latrobe Heritage Trust, said: “The problem is that is a really special building and one of only two buildings designed by Latrobe in Europe. It was a prototype for for the US Capitol building and the White House and that’s been acknowledged by scholars who have studied the buildings. It has very beautiful interiors with domes ceilings.

"Chopping it into loads of flats would cause loads of damage and cost loads of money.”

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Prep Schools Trust took the decision to close the school and to sell the building in order to consolidate the group’s debts.

The site was purchased by property investment company Even Ashdown Ltd for £5.95 million in November 2021.

Company director Nick Lebetkin plans to build 47 residential units within the historic house and around the site, as well as stripping Ashdown’s Chapel – which was built as a war memorial to the fallen soldiers of the First and Second World Wars – and turning it into a flat.

Nick told SussexWorld: “We are proposing to take down the large east wing accommodation block along with various other buildings which will substantially improve the setting of the main house.

“What we are actually doing is giving life to a run down listed building that doesn’t work as a school and is far too big to be used a single house . who would buy a 40 room house?

"In short we are saving the buildings and improving the setting of it. If they get their way the future of the buildings would be in question. In the real world one needs to take a balanced view.”

The Latrobe Heritage Trust propose that retaining a mixed residential and educational use for the building would have minimal impact on the heritage of the site, while continuing to be useful to the community by providing a level of public access and appreciation for the site’s history.

Edward says there have now been more than a hundred letters from local people and architectural experts opposing to the plans, including academics from the University of Oxford and the University of Cincinnati.

He said: “We have got a lot of people interested, but the ball is now in Wealden District Council’s court to chuck out this application and put the building to a better use which is keeping in use as a institutional or charitable building. Which is what it’s built for and would be much less costly in that form of use.

"The level of local and expert opposition to these plans, which breach 41 local and national planning policies, is now clear. Councillors need to get behind a sustainable future for this unique piece of Sussex heritage, and chuck them out.

"The alternative is years of dereliction and legal wrangling, until the same decision is eventually reached by the courts. In the meantime, Wealden and Historic England must use their powers to compel the owner to save Ashdown from the elements."