Ipswich County Hall: Urgent repairs needed to save derelict ex-HQ

An accommodation block for further flats and two maisonettes could be built at the back of County Hall

"Urgent repairs" are needed to help save a former council headquarters which has been derelict for 15 years.

Suffolk County Council moved out of the Grade II listed building on St Helen's Street, Ipswich, in 2004.

Developers Harris and Wilton, which has submitted plans to Ipswich Borough Council to turn it into 12 flats, has applied to carry out immediate repairs.

Listed building consent is needed, particularly for panelling and stairs which have dry rot, the firm said.

County Hall was named an "endangered building" in 2012 by the Victorian Society, who described it as a "haunt of vandals, thieves, drug users and squatters"

Developers behind plans to turn the former County Hall into flats have submitted additional plans for urgent repair work on the ailing structure, which was built in 1836 as a prison and law courts.

Extensions allowed it to be used as council headquarters in 1906.

In 1936, the County Hall became the centre of international attention when its court hosted the divorce proceedings of Wallis Simpson, who later married Edward VIII - forcing the abdication crisis.

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The developer's agents Thurlow Architects lodged plans in December to convert the building into flats of one, two and three bedrooms, with proposals for a new accommodation block behind for a further 28 flats.

Amended proposals with additional information are due to be submitted next month, but Thurlow Architects said an additional application for listed building consent was needed for maintenance work, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Lionel Thurlow, architect, said: "We have got to make some amendments to beat the dry rot but the latest application is really to try and deal directly with some urgent works that need doing as well.

"We are pro-actively trying to keep the water out and then we can deal with the principal areas."