ONE of the most historic buildings in Droitwich Spa has been sold at auction for £150,000.

The building at 44-46 High Street, which was most recently the home of Wychavon District Council’s Community Contact Centre, could now become a vintage tea room, fashion outlet and art space.

The Grade II Listed landmark has been empty since August last year, when the contact centre relocated to the library.

The site is believed to date from the 1600s and has in its time been a bakery, a cake and bread shop and a cafe. It also housed the town’s JobCentre service until recently.

During the mid-1990s it underwent extensive modernisation and improvement works, including a rear extension to provide offices and a centrally glazed atrium.

The couple who bought the historic building, Jacqui Dowdeswell and Andrew Probyn, are planning to transform the premises into a vintage tea room with bistro, a shop selling vintage clothes and will also provide a gallery and exhibition space for the crafts and artwork of local artists, subject to the necessary planning consent.

Vic Allison, deputy managing director at the council, said: “We’re very pleased that building has sold and we’re happy with the price it achieved. We’re also pleased that the new owners have some ambitious ideas and we wish them well in reinvigorating the building.”

Jenny Davis, arts officer at the authority, said: “I’m really pleased that the town may get another arts venue. This will be great for all the artists out there and locally to sell their work and raise their profiles but also to inspire others.”

Jacqui Dowdeswell, new owner of the building, added: “We’re really excited about our beautiful building and its origins, as Bullocks old tea room and cake shop. It is an amazing opportunity to sympathetically rejuvenate the building as well as bring people in to the High Street.”