The BBC presenter is to call in on grade 2 listed Chestnuts House in Walthamstow, East London, to decide whether to back a call for lottery funding to restore the building to its former Georgian splendour.
Built in 1745, the house was part of the Essex County Lunatic Asylum until the early 1900s.
Tim Bennett-Goodman Waltham Forest Business Board said: “It needs bucket-loads of TLC and that’s precisely what we intend to give it with, hopefully, lottery funding and the support of expert champions such as Dan."
Cruikshank is due to visit on September 24.
Bid to turn mental hospital into student halls
Plans to turn another former mental hospital into student housing were unveiled in Durham are also under consideration.
Developers want to turn the disused County Hospital into homes for students at the city’s university.
The council is looking at three options which will provide between 280 -485 rooms for students depending on the treatment of the building.
The first two sets of plans would cost around £20 million and involve demolition and conversion of the hospital.
The third would offer the fewest rooms and cost £6 million, while retaining much of the original building and extensions built in the 1930s.
Old Wembley Stadium car park earmarked for student housing
Student housing giants Unite Group are to build more accommodation on an acre plot of car park on the old Wembley Stadium site.
The £7.4m site will be developed into a 684-room student block and 10,000 square feet of shops, providing planning permission is granted.
The accommodation is likely to cost £47 million to build and is likely to open in 2016.
Brent Council is urging developers to build student housing in the area as part of the regeneration of the old stadium neighbourhood.
“As well as being a key milestone in the group’s development strategy, this site will strongly appeal to students,” said Richard Simpson, Unite’s head of property.
Office block switch
Planners are considering permission for a new £17 million office block conversion into student housing.
The block, Portland House, is just off the main high street in Exeter city centre.
If the proposal wins permission, the development will become the sixth for Vitas Students is two years. The company has other student housing in Liverpool, Manchester and Bristol.
