Work is set to get underway to maintain a historic property in Bath, once the home of Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, and now a community base.
Pauline Swaby Wallace, Princess Esther Sellassie Antohin, Professor Shawn Naphtali Sobers and Cllr Kevin Guy
Bath & North East Somerset Council and Fairfield House Bath Community Interest Company (CIC) have started working in formal partnership and agreed to a significant maintenance programme for Fairfield House in Kelston Road.
Fairfield House Bath CIC was awarded a two-year lease by the local authority last October.
It will enable the historic site to continue being used as a lively community hub, daycare centre for the elderly and heritage attraction for visitors worldwide.
Scaffolding is about to go up on the Victorian building. The council will manage the maintenance programme with an immediate focus on roof guttering and drainage repairs.
A new partnership board, independently chaired by Tom Boden, will meet monthly.
William Heath, Co-Chair of Fairfield House Bath CIC, said: “This is a very important building and we are pleased to have been able to agree the maintenance programme with the council to ensure its future.
“The urgency of the repair work was underlined by a significant collapse of decorative plasterwork in the hall in the early hours of Sunday 5th February when the house was empty.
“The ceiling will be fully restored by specialist contractors in coming weeks, who will carry out other safety checks.”
Councillor Tom Davies, cabinet member for Adult Services and Council House Building, said: “Fairfield House with its history and its contribution to community life means a great deal to so many people so I am pleased that a maintenance plan has been agreed and that work will begin on the house to ensure its future.”
From 1936 to 1941, the villa was the residence of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I, who gifted the property to Bath Corporation, a forerunner of Bath & North East Somerset Council, in 1959 as a home for the aged in gratitude for the warm welcome he received from the citizens of Bath.
The bungalow was built to provide caretaker accommodation.
Fairfield House was used as a residential care home until 1993, when new room size requirements made it unsuitable.
Since then it has been used as a day centre by a number of groups including, since 1993, by the charity Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens’ Association (BEMSCA).
Fairfield House is also a community hub and place of pilgrimage for the local people of Bath, for Rastafari, Ethiopians, and the worldwide African diaspora.
The Fairfield House site comprises two buildings, an ‘Italianate’ 19th century, Grade II listed villa at 2 Kelston Road and a post-war residential detached bungalow at 27 Burleigh Gardens.
It is open for public tours which will resume on Sunday 19th February.
