A Tonbridge school has applied to turn a basement in one of its buildings into more student accommodation.

Clare House, situated on the London Road leading out of the town, has been used as a boarding house for a small number of Upper Sixth boys for years.

Now Tonbridge School has submitted an application to the council to turn the basement of the building into further boarding space.

There has been a resident staff member occupying the upper ground and first floors while the five or six boys housed there have been on the top floor.

The lower ground floor is not used as habitable space at the moment.

One of the chief difficulties is the means of escape from the top floor which is by a single, steep and narrow staircase.

The building is not listed, but is within the curtilage of the main school buildings and so has to be treated as such.

The school wishes to increase the number of boys that may be accommodated in Clare House and at the same time make the means of escape from the top floor compliant with current standards.

This will involve bringing the lower ground floor into use to provide a number of rooms and improving the rooms on the top floor.

The possibility of creating better means of escape internally has been considered but the need to come through the housemaster’s accommodation mean that there is a serious loss of area through the building which the school wishes to avoid at all costs.

So the possibility of adding a staircase independently of the house was considered and seems to be a solution that meets the needs of the school well.

The design is contemporary in concept, being a steel staircase clad in glass so that, although it is covered in, it is not an indoor space.

A decision on the application is due on May 20.