Peterborough's 60-years-old landmark building Guild House goes up for sale

A landmark building in Peterborough that has been used to train nurses and midwives has been put up for sale by its university owners.

Guild House, in Oundle Road, is currently the home of the Anglia Ruskin University’s Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine and Social Care.

But the faculty will soon move to the campus of Peterborough’s new £30 million university off Bishop’s Road, on the Embankment.

The price tag for the three-storey building, spread across 60,000 square feet on a 3.69 acres site, has not been disclosed by commercial agents Eddisons, which are overseeing the sale of the freehold of the property on behalf of the university.

Julian Welch, director at Eddisons, said: “Guild House represents a superb opportunity to acquire a landmark building on a large site in a prominent edge of city centre location.

"The property also lends itself to a wide range of alternative uses including as offices, as a hotel, for medical purposes and indeed for conversion to residential.

“It sits on a large site with a number of areas that have potential for further development, subject to planning consents being obtained.

Mr Welch added: “Buildings of this nature do not come to the market very often in Peterborough and we are sure that there will be strong demand from prospective purchasers looking to invest in one of the fast growing cities in the UK.”

Guild House was built in 1962 for Mitchell Construction. It became the home of ARU’s Faculty of Health and Social Care, which had been at the former Peterborough General Hospital, in 2011 with the help of a £500,000 grant from Peterborough City Council.

Toby Wood, vice-chairman of the Peterborough Civic Society, said: “Guild House used to be a British Sugar office building before they moved to Lynch Wood about 10 years ago.

"We recall that someone produced a scheme to turn the building into apartments so think that is what will happen to it.

It is 1960s in design and is fairly basic in architectural quality. I don't think there is any chance that it would be Listed.

“We would want to see the building retained and refurbished - that is the most energy efficient thing to do.”