Children and teachers at Thomas Coram Nursery Centre and School, where the rent is set to rise from £115,000 a year to more than £240,000

A PIONEERING children’s charity has been accused of forcing a nursery it helped to found into closure by hiking rent and cutting floorspace.

For nearly 100 years the Thomas Coram Nursery Centre and School in Mecklenburgh Square has provided a haven of top-quality early years education to the most disadvantaged children in Bloomsbury – without costing parents a penny.

It is Camden’s only state-maintained nursery in the borough.

The nursery’s landlord is the UK’s oldest children’s charity, the Coram Group, which helped set up the provision to continue campaigner Thomas Coram’s work in supporting children in poverty.

But now, the charity has been accused of “turning on its own family” after it announced it would be raising the rent from £115,000 a year to more than £240,000 over a three-year period and reducing its size which would “significantly reduce” the nursery’s Year 2 provision making it “financially unviable”.

Lucy Razzall, who is the chair of governors at the nursery and a parent at the school, told the New Journal she was blindsided by the proposal, which was shared with them in 2021.

Ms Razzall said: “They haven’t been very clear with us. We know that they want to redevelop the campus and build more offices and conference space. But the space was purpose-built and designed for the specific needs of small children.

“They’ve said to us in their own words, ‘We need to make the best use of our assets.’ But it’s not like we’re a Costa Coffee.”

She added: “We were deeply shocked because it’s not only a charity, but it’s a charity whose stated mission is to work for the needs and rights of vulnerable children. And so to do this, to take action which directly contradicts their stated mission and not to see us as partners or organisations that can work together as we historically have done, was very shocking.”

The nursery has consistently scored an “outstanding” Ofsted rating since 2012, but the holistic experience of attending the nursery has been something which has stayed with past pupils for decades.

Adam Brown attended the nursery from 1966 to 1968 and said he had fond memories of playing outside and taking naps after lunch in camp beds.

He said: “It was just a very lovely setting for a small child. And it wasn’t, you know, in any way traumatic. I know these things can be for small children who separate from their parents at that young age.

“Since then, I’ve always understood that particular site to be a beacon of excellence. It seems odd that they should be applying pressure in that way to something that surely represents everything Thomas Coram embodies.”

Adam Brown at the nursery in the 1960s

Camden Town resident Rosie Thomas, 88, who sent her three children to the nursery in the 1960s, added: “There was a wonderful outdoor space. They had paddling pools and a little hill and climbing poles and lunch.

“It was the kind of nursery you dream of and it would be so wonderful for people nowadays.

“I knew my children were safe. I knew they were happy.”

A Coram Group spokesperson said: “The nursery’s rent has not been increased since 2016 despite the profound pressures of the pandemic and cost of living crisis placing growing demands on the charity.  The future and funding of the maintained statutory nursery is a matter for Camden.

“We have met repeatedly with the authority, as the leaseholder, including with the nursery’s chair of governors, and are always happy to do so. Coram has presented multiple options to safeguard the nursery’s future at Coram, even phasing the rent rise over three years to match the rent that other charities on the Coram campus pay, which is well below the market rate.

“We are dismayed that two years after terms were agreed, Camden has yet to fulfil their stated intent, leaving their own nursery in limbo and the charity and the children we serve bearing the consequences.”

A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Camden Council is determined to do everything we can to support Thomas Coram Nursery which provides nationally leading early years education in the heart of Camden. We already invest a significant sum each year to maintain the provision as the nursery faces risings costs.

“The nursery have been really clear with us that higher rent and, critically, a reduction in bespoke childcare space being proposed will severely threaten their future, so we have been advocating on their behalf to try and find a solution.

“We will continue to try and work with the nursery and Coram charity to find a way to safeguard the nursery as quickly as possible.”