A new community group has been formed to fight for the future of Norwich's Wensum Lodge, after council bosses voted to shut the adult education site.
The Friends of Wensum Lodge group includes students who have taken courses at the King Street venue, as well as tutors who taught them.
The group says it wants to work with others to make Wensum Lodge a creative and learning centre for the city and county, as well as turning it into a hub for community activities.
The Conservative-controlled cabinet at Norfolk County Council made a decision in the summer to stop adult learning services at the building and to pave the way for it to be sold.
Some courses have transferred to other venues and the lodge will shut completely by the end of the year, but there are hopes the building could yet remain in public use.
The community has six months to come up with a bid to purchase the King Street site before County Hall can sell it, after a Labour activist got it declared an asset of community value.
And the Friends of Wensum Lodge hope a way can be found so courses, such as ceramics and silversmithing, can still run there.
Stephanie Northen, the group's founder, said: "We have a vision for a future Wensum Lodge that serves the city and county and helps generate money - as well as boost creativity and mental health. We hope the county council will work with us to achieve that.”
READ MORE: Protest over closure of Norwich's Wensum Lodge
Construction tutor Paul Free, whose courses have moved to Hellesdon, said: "The real loser here is the community.
"So many displaced people now housed all alone in Norwich have confided in me that the only human contact they currently have is at Wensum Lodge."
Council leader Kay Mason Billig previously said conversations about the building's future were going on "behind the scenes" and she hoped for a "positive outcome".
The group holds its first meeting at the King's Centre in King Street at 7pm on Thursday (October 12).
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