Maria Fidelis School – Case Study

Relive your schooldays in this original living space!

• Project: Maria Fidelis School
• Date Commenced: May 2019
• Client: Camden Council
• Location: Euston, London, United Kingdom

When the Maria Fidelis Catholic School moved to their new property the old school was left vacant. Due to several attempts of unauthorised entry to the old site the owner Camden Council brought in full time security guards to watch over the site. Manned guarding is an expensive option and after trialling this for some time the local council were looking for a cheaper but equally reliable solution.

VPS were called in to discuss protection by occupation using the VPS Guardian service. The vulnerable building has a beautiful structure and design and is in a highly sought after London location, although it is only temporary our residents love to call this property their home.

Background
The primary school department of the Maria Fidelis Catholic School were using this former convent for many years as the site for their school. Due to the growing number of students, and the desire to house the primary school with the secondary school on the same site, they decided to move into newly built premises. This resulted in the vacancy of this beautiful school building. At the start of this project, little is known about the future plans for this impressive building.

Our solution
As soon as VPS received the go ahead to start the temporary management and security of the building we carried out a full health and safety check to ensure the building was suitable for its new residential purpose. In addition VPS carried out any works required to ensure these standards were met, including replacing many of the doors on the property for fire safety reasons and installing several washing machines and hot plates to help the new residents settle in.

The main building has three floors that are all being used for rooms for the guardians, and the annex area is used as additional living studios. There are showers, toilets and shared kitchens installed on each floor and these are jointly used by the guardians. The former roof garden is closed to our guardians for safety reasons. With its central location near Euston station, this is a great location to live in and as expected we received a high volume of registrations from interested guardians.

The guardians were very eager to move into the building, we currently have 29 people living there. Many of these residents have been VPS Guardians for many years and have built strong friendships with one another. Often a group of guardians will request to be housed in the same property, and in the case of this school a full corridor is inhabited by guardians who have lived together previously. Together they invested time in furnishing the common spaces and when walking through the corridors of this former school you can feel the friendly, warm atmosphere.