Opinions are divided about plans to turn one of Surbiton’s mansions into flats… then flog them off to pay for a new student residential block.

Hillcroft women’s college wants to convert Grade ll listed mansion The Gables in South Bank into a dozen apartments to raise cash for a new block lower down the slope, near the Glenbuck Road entrance to Surbiton station.

The proposed new college building (top) would replace Powell House (right). There would also be a crèche and residential block.

A planning application is imminent, but residents were given a glimpse of the scheme at an open day. Claire Melish, who lives nearby, worries that Richmond Adult Community College has “gobbled up” historic Hillcroft, a pioneering centre for women’s education in the early 20^th century, and is now calling the tune and engaged on what amounts to an asset-stripping programme.

Originally the college wanted to put up five new buildings on the leafy site – once the gardens of matchstick mogul Wilberforce Bryant’s palatial home – but that has been slimmed down to three.

A foam and string ball model of how the site would look, with the proposed new buildings having brown roofs

Claire, a member of the influential Kingston Society, fears the effect of the building on an ecologically sensitive site. The college says the scheme will benefit the community, improve the ‘setting’ of The Gables and create a café and crèche open to the public.

The Gables has some remarkable features, including plaster detailing on the exterior, which would be preserved in the conversion. The college argues that the building is being restored to its original residential purpose.