A rare chance has emerged to see inside one of Kent’s largest abandoned buildings where thousands worked over the years - still packed with old furniture.

Every day hundreds of people pass Saga’s seven-storey former office block in the centre of Folkestone, which has lain empty since the Covid pandemic.

The landmark high rise in Middelburg Square is still bedecked with fading office equipment once used by staff before they moved to a working-from-home set-up.

Now, a series of snaps show the empty interior today, where stationery and computers are strewn across desks and coats hang from hooks - as if their owners just upped and left moments ago.

Once hi-tech security gates are still in place, with plastic encased ‘in’ and ‘out’ signs resting on top, just metres from huge revolving doors, where employees once passed.

Brightly lit with cream-coloured panel flooring, the main foyer opens up to the reception desk, with what appears to be a basket on top.

Desks opposite are piled with officer gear - a fan, computer equipment, paperwork, next to an upside down whiteboard titled ‘Q Max Zero Barriers’.

Next to the reception area are three lifts which rarely whir into life and an eerily quiet main stairwell.

To the rear of the building is an abandoned open plan kitchen and canteen, where silence replaces the chitter-chatter and clattering of cutlery.

Emblazoned in white on a black sign, the words ‘Home Comforts’ are displayed above a servery, the wall decorated with a nine-picture montage bearing the term ‘Fresh ‘n’ ‘Tasty’.

Stacks of various sized plates can be seen at one end of a chrome-coloured work surface – neatly heaped trays are at the other.

A lecture room looks as if people packed up just minutes ago with dozens of chairs arranged under the glow of ceiling lights.

A bin labelled ‘Mixed Recycling’ remains in a training room where a large flatscreen TV is mounted to a wall - office gear displayed on one table, the other overturned.

At the back of the room is a board adorned with some kind of literature, while the view from a wide window shows the spectacular backdrop of the North Downs.

In its heyday, the building teemed with workers employed by Sir Roger De Haan’s insurance firm, selling products mainly to those over 50 years of age.

Filing cabinets, desks, telephones, desktop computers and chairs fill open-plan offices at the top of the building, where panoramic views of the district’s hills can be seen out of the window, and corridors peal off into smaller rooms.

In the background of one picture, green coats can be seen hung on a stand, an umbrella appears suspended from a rail in the foreground, inside a room consisting of about 20 work stations hosting a multitude of PC hardware.

The top floor is split into smaller office suites for meeting rooms and the managing director’s office with views over the English Channel, with France easily visible on a clear day.

In 1999 Roger De Haan bought shares from his brother Peter and took a controlling interest in the firm – one of Kent’s largest employers - acquiring the final 25% of shares in 2002.

It was a shrewd move.

In 2004, Sir Roger oversaw the sale of Saga in a takeover backed by private equity firm Charterhouse for a cool £1.4 billion.

It was a deal which made him one of the country's richest men while Saga buildings based around Folkestone and afar thrived.

Now, Bouverie House has joined various other former Saga buildings on Rightmove labelled “price on asking” and “may be suitable for residential conversion”.

Plans to transform the building – which comes with a 40 space car park and subway tunnel – into 86 homes were recently given the green light for the second time.

Marketed by Sibley Pares Chartered Surveyors in Maidstone, the blurb says each floor can be easily divided into smaller suites.

“The property would be suitable for conversion to residential flats under permitted development or alternative uses subject of course to obtaining the necessary consents,” it adds.