Town Hall to sell off two schoolkeepers’ homes to fund decarbonisation work

Queensbridge Primary School. Image: Google

House hunters could soon find two properties on offer – both boasting well-educated neighbours.

Hackney Council is planning to sell off old caretaker houses at two primary schools.

Buyers could be putting their own stamp on the former schoolkeeper’s historic home at Queensbridge Primary School on Albion Drive near London Fields.

The school was described as “exceptional” by Ofsted inspectors during their last visit in 2019.

The caretaker’s home has been empty since 2010 and the council decided it was ‘surplus to education requirements’ the following year.

It has front and back gardens and includes three storeys, including a cellar.

Similar properties on the street have fetched north of £1m.

Buyers could also snap up a two-storey Victorian home with a basement overlooking Shoreditch Park, which has been vacant since the last caretaker left in 2006.

Shoreditch Park School was also rated as outstanding in the most recent Ofsted report.

The council plans to use money from the sales to help decarbonise the borough’s schools.

Both schoolkeepers’ homes have been sitting empty for more than a decade and are “in a poor condition”.

A survey recommended “significant works” in the next five years to ensure both are in a good state of repair.

There have been no repairs or maintenance work since they fell empty, apart from to secure them from squatters.

They will also need an estimated £50,000 spent on boundary work to separate both buildings from the schools next door.

The council will also fund some repairs before selling the homes.

Hackney’s cabinet is likely to approve the plans.