Councillor Paula Keay, Cabinet Member for Sustainable Economy said: ‘We’re committed to ensuring that Pippbrook House in Dorking is brought back into active use. Pippbrook House was built between 1856 and 1858 and designed by the distinguished architect George Gilbert Scott. It’s impressive heritage, richly decorated interior, and painted ceilings resulted in the building being classified as a Grade 2* listed building. Only around 5.8% of the 370,000 buildings listed on the National Heritage List for England are Grade 2*, meaning they are particularly important buildings of more than special interest.
‘We are investing approximately £1.4 million to undertake necessary works to weatherproof the building. The Grade 2* listing required us to obtain both listed building consent and normal planning consent before any work could start. That consent was obtained in July, and work will commence on 5 August, with an expected completion in June 2025.
‘It is worth noting that in 2017, MVDC was approached by CHiP (Pippbrook Community Hub C.I.C.) to transform the building into a community hub and business centre. CHiP partnered with RJK Properties Ltd., which had experience with similar projects. A business plan was submitted, and Draft Heads of Terms were approved in September 2020. However, RJK could not proceed due to pandemic-related challenges, the complexities of partial building operations, and the financial and regulatory risks involved. RJK required significant preservation work to be completed by MVDC before taking on the lease, a common requirement for such transactions.
‘Since February 2023, we have been seeking support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to fund part of the cost of further essential works to the building, as well as helping design and deliver a range of activities to connect residents with the heritage of this building.
Unfortunately, we have been unsuccessful to date. We will continue pursuing this as the restoration of Pippbrook House remains high on our agenda.
‘The current permitted use of Pippbrook House is for a library on the ground floor and offices on the first and second floors. We will very shortly be seeking planning consent to change the ground floor use to permit a wider range of cultural and wellbeing activities, including comedy performances, small-scale studio events and hire opportunities for community and other organisations. If planning is secured, the plan is to draw on the skills, and experience of our Dorking Halls team to manage the activation of the building to test the community hub concept during 2025, at a time when Dorking Halls is planned to close for the second phase of essential refurbishment works. We are also in active discussions for our first office letting within the building.’
