Going for a song – buyers queue up for Preston’s old performing arts college

Campaigners fighting to keep the former art college for public use are concerned they may have missed out on snapping up the imposing building for the city.

The Grade II Listed Institute, which is on English Heritage's At Risk Register after being empty for more than eight years, has been on the market for months with a modest asking price of £350,000.

A group called the Friends of the Harris School of Art had been hoping to raise the cash to buy it as a Community Interest Company (CIC). But an estate agency handling the sale confirmed to the Post that the property is "under offer" for the second time since it was first advertised.

"At the moment all we can say is that it is under offer and, as we are still going through the legals, we can't comment any further," said a spokesperson for Bolton-based company Fletcher CRE. "We have had a lot of interest in the building. It went under offer straight away when it was first on the market, but they pulled out and now it is under offer again."

One member of the campaign group, businessman Benedict Ward, has said he is ready to step in should the building become available again. He told the Post: "The property is under offer from another party. If that falls through I’ll buy it. My plans for it include the community and education. Although that’s all conjecture at the moment."

The Harris Institute was opened in 1849 and was later funded by benefactor Edmund Robert Harris on the stipulation that it would be used for educational purposes. It was originally called the Preston Institution for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. More recently it became the Harris School of Art and then the Darul Aloom Islamic Institution.

Plans to convert it into 12 flats were turned down by Preston Council in 1998. The University of Central Lancashire ran it for a time as its Department of Performing Arts, but put it up for sale in 2009 after it moved into a new £15m facility on the main campus. The building was eventually bought by the Bhailok family, but has stood unused since 2014.