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Charity formed last October buys two Old Palace buildings

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The Rise School of Excellence has paid £750,000 for two buildings on the site of the former girls’ fee-paying school, as Croydon’s biggest landowners, the Whitgift Foundation, continue to dispose of their properties.
By GENE BRODIE, education correspondent

Making a splash: the swimming pool in Old Palace School – not one of its heritage buildings – has been part of a £750,000 property deal with Rise School of Excellence

The piecemeal break-up of the former sites of Old Palace girls’ private school has continued with the Jubilee Buildings on Church Road and school swimming pool being sold for £750,000 to the Rise School of Excellence, the Whitgift Foundation has confirmed today.

This follows the £4.7million sale last summer of The Great Hall, Old Palace, Science Block and Cathedral Building, to be used by a special educational needs school which opened last September. The Foundation had previously sold the Melville Road site of Old Palace’s prep school for £7million to a Hindu education organisation.

The latest sale brings total receipts for property disposals by the Foundation to around £12.5million in the past 12 months. Those sales will only cover a small part of the £55million lost from the Foundation’s unrestricted funds since 2017.

The 900-pupil Old Palace School closed in July last year as response by the Whitgift Foundation to their on-going financial struggles caused by the non-development of the Whitgift shopping centre.

The Old Town site used by Old Palace School, which had a history dating to 1889, includes several heritage and listed buildings, some dating to the 1400s.

Today, a spokesperson for purchasers, Rise School of Excellence, described themselves as “thrilled” to have bought the Jubilee Buildings and pool, saying that they are looking forward to announcing their plans for the site soon.

Rise School of Excellence did not exist before October last year, and has only registered with Companies House and the Charity Commission in the last few months. It does not appear to have any track record in running a school, of excellence or any other kind.

Roisha Hughes, the Whitgift Foundation’s chief executive, pictured left, said, “I am delighted that these buildings are being put to good use by a range of community and educational organisations working within our community. We wish them all well.”

And in a statement issued by the Foundation today they said: “Proceeds from all three sales will go to the Foundation’s education covenant, which enables the provision of its charitable objective of delivering education in Croydon.”

Whitgift School, the £30,000 per year fee-paying boys’ school in South Croydon, and Trinity School in Shirley (mostly boys, who are each charged £29,000 pa) continue to operate. Trinity is working on plans to have a co-educational intake from September 2027.

Site plan: how the estate agents’ brochure mapped out the properties for sale. Buildings 1, 2, 3 and 4 were sold last year, the Jubilee Building and swimming pool have just been sold

Some elements of the Old Palace site have yet to find buyers or sub-tenants.

The modern Shah Building, where Old Palace Sixth Formers studied, is on a £1million per year long lease, of which eight years remain. The Foundation says it is “in advanced negotiations” about a sub-let.

In the case of the former school’s tennis and netball courts on Howley Road and Cranmer Road, the Foundation is looking to sell the freehold of both sites.

Last year, the Old Palace buildings were granted an enhanced listing by Historic England to conserve their heritage assets.

Read more: Whitgift Foundation decides to close Old Palace School in 2025
Read more: Crumbling finances see troubled Foundation lose millions more
Read more: Old Palace sale completed – for £2.3m less than asking price

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