Insider Media Limited

A grade-II listed hall in Leicestershire has been sold to the I-Foundation, which promotes Hindu state education across the UK. The sale of Evington Hall was advised by Drivers Jonas Deloitte’s Birmingham team.

Leicester Grammar School (LGS) Trust sold the property for an undisclosed sum.

The 15,219 sq ft building, which is set within five acres, is the former home of Leicester Grammar Junior School.

Evington Hall will become Leicester’s first Hindu state school and will be one of the country’s first free schools under the coalition government’s Free Schools programme.

At full capacity, the new school, which will be called Krishna-Avanti Primary School, aims to provide 420 places by 2018 for children of all faiths aged four to 11-years-old.

The building will undergo a major refurbishment to provide facilities including new IT and sports equipment, as well as a new vegetarian kitchen.

Work on site is expected to be completed in time for the new school year in September.

Kola Oliyide, senior surveyor in the real estate development team at Drivers Jonas Deloitte, advised the LGS Trust on the sale of the building.

He said: “I am delighted that we have been able to secure the future of Evington Hall, both as an important grade-II listed building and as a place of learning for local children.

“The original plan was to turn the hall into apartments but after the property market crashed interest from housing developers dropped off so we had to look elsewhere for potential purchasers.

“As a free school, the I-Foundation will continue the established use of education on the site, making best use of the property in an attractive surrounding that, unfortunately, the LGS Junior School had outgrown.”