Bidding opens for Plymouth's historic Pounds House
Bidding opens today for the Pounds House mansion in Plymouth’s Central Park which is being sold off by the city council with a guide price of half a million pounds.
Auctioneers Clive Emson, who are handling the sale, say there has been a “good level of interest” in the 200-year-old three-storey grade II listed villa from prospective buyers locally and further afield and a “good number” attending the five open house viewings.
The online auction begins at midday today (October 28) and ends around 1.40pm on Thursday (October 30).
Pounds House was built in 1829 and has been owned by Plymouth City Council since the 1920s but it has been empty for the last seven years.
The council said it could no longer identify a use for it and maintenance costs had rocketed to nearly £500,000 in five years.
Auctioneer James Lofthouse said he thought the property would sell but it very much depended on the day what it sold for.
“If the interest is there the bids could go up and up,” he said. “It is a lovely building with original features and in a lovely spot in Central Park, it could be amazing.”
The last building Clive Emson sold for the council – the disused register office on the Hoe – in November 2024 – sold for £827,000 – it’s guide price was £295,000.
Mr Lofthouse said people coming forward so far with initial interest in Pounds House had “kept their cards close to their chest” about what they might use the building for.
Over the last 100 years it has been a library, wedding venue, cafe and offices.
The Outland Road property is arranged over three floors comprising offices, ceremony rooms and ancillary accommodation. There is car parking and garden areas and in total, the site extends to about 0.45 hectares (1.13 acres).
The council has served tree preservation orders on a number of specimens close to the house and devised a sympathetic planting plan which will have to be implemented by the owners as part of the sale contract.
It says these measures are to protect the landscape and preserve the park setting of this historic property.
The authority decided to dispose of some public land around Pounds House to make the property easier to sell despite almost 80 people objecting to the loss of green space.
Cabinet member for housing at Plymouth City Council Chris Penberthy (Lab, Ste Peter and the Waterfront) said the whole site, including the house, was less than one per cent of the total area of Central Park and given the size of the property and investment needed, it made sense to have this very small piece of land as part of the package.