Should try and get that or at least part of it habitable and put someone in to look after it , otherwise eventually it will go like so many other listed buildings go , up in flames gone forever...
That is why scaffolding is there, it is supposed to be getting turned into flats. Developer said it would cost £1m before the fire to refurbish thanks to council not maintaining it.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Ravenswood has had its structural survey and it is classed as having 20% damage but is structurally sound.
The building was insured.
They are going to remove and store the chimneys and part of the roof as a precaution in case of high winds. They are also allocating community patrol 24/7 alongside Occulus the current security firm.
Torus, the developers, are still intending to rebuild it.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Good , I’m glad , such a lovely house . I used to clean it years ago during my stint as a school cleaner. Used to love it when I was there on my own , thinking about all the grand people going down that lovely staircase.
I used to be around after school quite a bit, there were a couple of cleaners looking busy in Ravenswood, you'd go back an hour later and they were still doing the banister. I think they just preferred being in that building than the rest of the school. I quite liked the main building as well, the new concrete buildings were just trash.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Ravenswood seems to be the building that refuses to die. I joined Rock Ferry in Sep 1983 and I recall Ravenswood was inaccessible thanks to scaffolding and boards as there had recently been a fire (fellow students used to mention names of people they said had committed the arson attack but won't mention the names here). Once restored, it was a 6th form building. Around the back, you could still see names and dates that had been scratched into the stones and the concrete over the years, some dating back to the 50s and even before. You could get a real sense of history of the place. I was only ever allowed in there once to sit a biology exam I'd missed in 1985 or 86 IIRC, but it was a handsome building with beautiful features. I was saddened to hear of the demolition of my school but was happy that one part of it would continue to exist, albeit as flats. I hope that this latest damage is superficial and that the building can be saved again.
Hi Edward, see you've just joined so welcome.....nice to read your post about Ravenswood I've often wondered about the history of it and who lived their in the past . There is some information but not a lot. Like reading posts from other parts of the world, how are you managing with this Corona virus?
One of the guys from my year, Stacy Conroy, made this video just before the place was demolished. Sad to watch it, but it brought back loads of good memories. Over here, coronavirus means we are under a curfew, which pretty much means lockdown. We've got around 190 infected cases and 7 deaths, so nothing like back home! How about you guys? .
Last edited by EdwardH; 10th Apr 20205:53pm. Reason: wrong place to post this.
Yes I have seen that video , it's a good one. Pretty bad here with this virus but London seems to worse for it. We in lockdown and really should only be going out for essential shopping, medical reason or excercise meaning maybe a walk pretty much near home and if course social distancing..A lot of people not adhering to it though . We'll all just have to pray that things will get back to normal soon but I guess we've all got to be patient and do what we're told.
Don't know if I've asked this before but wonder what happened to that lovely stone freize above the main entrance? Surely they wouldn't destroy it most prob in someone's garden .
Thanks DD...hopefully it was taken/ sold to someone and is somewhere being cared for. Sure they could have made money for charity by selling off some things, even a brick or two people would have liked maybe stick in their garden or whatever. Soppose a salvage team came in first and took all the good stuff. Wouldn't it be nice to know what happened to that carving , anybody give an answer?
What eventually is the plan for this house DD? I heard it was to become a hub or something for community. Are bungalows for the over 55s still the plan on the land .
From memory (buyer beware!).... there's a three storey old people block and about 40 houses and 30 bungalows, Ravenswood getting converted into apartments.
There will be no through road between Ravenswood Avenue and Highfield South, so vehicle-wise the estate will be divided in two
The plans have changed numerous times. I'll try and dig out the current one later on. The last problem I recall was making sure the bin lorries had adequate access and turning everywhere.
The rest of the land has been handed over to a trust which seem to have no viable plans as how they are going to manage it - after the two groups had a war of the worlds and one achieved dominance, information is kept fairly close to their chests.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
Thanks DD, a fair bit of housing on the land then. At least Ravenswood will be looked after and saved, such a grand house. Do you mean the sports Fields which were promised to be used for community sports and maintained.
Torus got planning permission back in February 2020 but then in October they reduced their offer for the site from £2.1m to £1.2 because of the increased cost of refurbishing Ravenswood.
Bear in mind the site was valued at over £3m and that the council had already paid for the demolition of the other buildings and basic clearance and levelling of the site.
The security at the site was poor, part of the conditions for demolishing the site were that the Council was supposed to provide a security plan in 2014 which never seemed to materialise.
The layout on the Torus site is roughly right, it doesn't look like there are any bungalows now? The road along the bottom is Highfield South, only the small block of houses at the top right have access from Ravenswood Avenue. The original plans had a different layout.