Save Ashdown

Why it matters, the threats it faces,
and what you can do to help

Ashdown was built in 1793, a prototype for the US Capitol and the White House. It’s one of only two Latrobe buildings in Europe, and a place of refinement, beauty and innovation.

But now it’s under threat — and we need your help.

“Ashdown and Hammerwood [its sister house] are two of the most remarkable buildings for their date in the British Isles.”
— Professor James Stevens Curl MRIA FSA FSA Scot FRIAS (b. 1937)
“Ashdown is very perfect indeed.”
— Sir Nikolaus Pevsner CBE FBA (1902–83)

From 1886 to 2020, Ashdown House, a mile east of Forest Row, East Sussex, served as a preparatory school. Due to the Covid pandemic, the Prep Schools Trust took the decision to close the school, and to sell Ashdown in order to consolidate the group’s debts. It was purchased by Even Ashdown Ltd, a development firm beneficially owned by Nicholas Lebetkin, Olivier Levenfiche and Alon Hershkorn, for £5.95 million in November 2021.

The developer has applied to Wealden District Council to build 47 residential units within the historic house and around the site, and to convert Ashdown’s historic and beautiful Chapel, built as a war memorial to the fallen of the First and Second World Wars, into a flat. As a Trust, we consider that these plans would do irreparable and severe damage to the historic fabric of an internationally significant building, and that such a sensitive site is inappropriate for low-quality, suburban development.

On the pages below, you can find out more about Ashdown’s history and significance, the plans to develop it, the LHT’s objection, and how you can help – and have your say.

 
9 January 2023 update

We were very sorry to read the news this morning about the appalling abuse which is alleged to have occurred at Ashdown House School in the 1970s, with great sadness on the part of the brave survivors who have pursued these investigations. It is of scant consolation that justice may still be done even after many decades.

Our campaign is solely about the future of the building, which must now be used for something – the question is merely ‘what’, and what impact that has on the building’s heritage, which dates back many centuries further than its recent use as a prep school.

The thoughts of the trustees are with those who suffered at the school.

The Trustees of the Latrobe Heritage Trust