The battle to keep Buckmaster House retirement home in Broadstairs open has been lost with the doors closing for the final time yesterday (April 29).

The Western Esplanade site was run the Abbeyfield charity following a merger agreement in 2018 with Buckmaster Trustees that included a financial deal.

Abbeyfield  is a charity for older people providing housing across the UK and internationally and owns over 400 houses in seven countries.

‘Challenges’

Residents were first informed of the plans to close the site in May last year with Abbeyfield claiming the charity  had to overcome “significant challenges” from living through an “unprecedented pandemic, the war in Ukraine causing a huge increase in energy costs, rising inflation and escalating operation costs” and “a nationwide workforce shortage.”

The charity said that following a review it had “identified some properties” that can no longer be “operated sustainably.”

At the time of the announcement one family member said: “Elderly vulnerable people who thought they were in a safe haven have been left to flounder.”

Buckmaster House had 21 en-suite rooms and around 14 of those were occupied when the closure announcement was made.

The residents that remained have had to find alternative accommodation and staff and the home manager are faced with finding new jobs.

Sadness

In a post to social media the former Buckmaster House manager Karen Hunt said it was “with great sadness” that she closed the door to the home for the last time.

She added: “I just wanted to take the opportunity to tell everyone that the decision by Abbeyfield to close us was not based on any failure of the Buckmaster home as a business.

“In fact we were still doing extremely well considering we had just come out of Lockdown without losing any of our wonderful residents due to the diligence of our loyal staff and the families who supported us.

“The Abbeyfield society has closed 42 of their homes in the last nine months, so we are trying hard not to take it personally. But it is an absolute tragedy that such a successful local retirement home has now closed.

“It had withstood the test of time, surviving through two world wars and managing to evolve over all that time to accommodate the aging population of its residents for the 130 years that we were an independent charity.

“Yet just five years after ‘acquiring’ us Abbeyfield have closed the home and are now selling the property for somewhere in the region of £4 million pounds.”

Attempts to save the home

In January this year a group of Broadstairs residents attempted to save the home by asking Abbeyfield to relinquish control by reinstating the Buckmaster Memorial Home Charity.

The Buckmaster Support Group  said they would have been willing to take over the Buckmaster charity but conversations with the site owner ground to a halt.

In the social media post Karen added: “I would like to thank all of those local people who tried to save us, the petitions that were signed, the local group who were prepared to take us on and form a new charity but were rejected, the staff, our residents and their supportive families .

“It has been a very sad and stressful time for all those involved in the home especially for our residents who have all had to find new homes, but also for the staff finding new jobs and for me as the manager.

“I felt helpless to stop what was happening, it was clearly a ‘fait accompli’ and no matter what we tried to do to stop it happening it was going to go ahead and we have closed anyway.

Buckmaster House was built in 1895, commissioned by Jane Buckmaster in memory of her husband Thomas Buckmaster, a Savile Row tailor in London.

The house was originally set up as a place for women in the Brixton area to stay for convalescence or come for a holiday. Over the years, the house had been restored and modernised to provide accommodation for people of retirement age.

A statement from Abbeyfield has been requested.

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