THE refurbishment of a regency villa designed by John Dobson will be included as part of a major refurbishment scheme at Central Newcastle High School.

The Girls’ Day School Trust has appointed regional architects _space group to carry out £2.5m of improvements at Chapman House, the school’s junior school, which includes the Grade II-listed villa.

Once the project is completed, the school aims to open the villa to the public and take part in the annual Heritage Open Days initiative.

Central Newcastle High head of junior school, Angela Charlton, said: “We will be merging our two Junior School sites to one location, Chapman House, enabling all our junior pupils to be under one roof.

“_space are working with us to deliver an exciting learning environment for the junior girls which will very much tie in with our delivery of a creative curriculum.

“Chapman House, which includes a John Dobson-designed building, has many beautiful features and sits in five acres of gardens and woodland. The renovation planned will make the best use of this wonderful space. This will be of enormous benefit to our pupils as well as the public who will have better access to our facilities.” The Newcastle-based architectural firm has been carrying out conservation education work for 25 years, including projects at King’s School Tynemouth and Mowden Hall, Northumberland.

_space architect specialising in conservation Phil Lloyd said: “Renovating the John Dobson building is part of the larger challenge of refurbishing Central Newcastle High and we are looking forward to being able to unlock this gem for pupils as well as the public.”

The project includes a new nursery, reception classrooms and bringing a mothballed part of the 20th Century extension back into use.