The Bank of England has formally put its sports ground and 43,000 sq ft former records office, the Grange, in Roehampton, SW15, up for sale. The bank’s current governor, Mark Carney, decided to get rid of the sports facility earlier this year.
The bank bought the site in the early 1900s, and this is the first time it has been put on the market since then.
Gerald Eve has been appointed to find a buyer for the site, which spans 28 acres near to Richmond Park and adjacent to the Lawn Tennis Association and has around 90,000 sq ft of accommodation.
The historic site has hosted the Wimbledon Championships qualifying tournament since 1948. The England football team trained there ahead of their 1966 World Cup victory, as did the England rugby team before their 1995 Five Nations Grand Slam.
The grounds and facilities are used by a number of community groups, and this access is expected to continue after the sale.
The property is to be sold by informal tender, with offers invited for the whole site or in lots. The Bank of England would prefer to sell a long leasehold over the site.
Gerald Eve expects interest to come from leisure investors and those seeking a range of alternative uses.
Wandsworth Council recently designated part of the site as an Asset of Community Value.
The sale of the sports ground follows a report published in March from the Public Accounts Committee. That report said that the bank, which has an extensive property portfolio, needed to write to the committee by June 2019, setting out how it planned to rationalise its property needs and locations and optimise the value of its assets. Up to that point it was judged not to have thought “radically enough” about its property needs or how to get the best value from its valuable property portfolio.
The committee added that the bank had acknowledged that it was “not defensible for a public body to still have its own sports ground and centre which only 13% of staff were members of”.
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