Originally it was planned to convert both St Helen's House and the Pearson Building into a luxury hotel, with an adjoining crescent of new apartments.

[citation needed][7] During World War II the school was evacuated and the buildings were occupied by the Ordnance Survey organisation to undertake the creation of maps used by Allied Forces.

Following this move St Helen's House was used as the Joseph Wright School of Art and, from 1972, as an Adult Education centre.

[6] Unable to afford this, in November 2006 Derby City Council sold the house (and the neighboring Pearson Building) on a 299-year lease, to the property developer Richard Blunt.

[9] The original plans were to convert the two buildings into a fifty-room hotel, and to construct an apartment block within a crescent where the current Chapel, gymnasium and craft workshops stand.

[citation needed] The building was featured in a short film entitled Derby School – the Sixties Revisited, which was made in September 2012.

The film revealed the then dilapidated state of the rooms; including peeling paint and remnants of original blackboards.

[2] As of 2013[update] the original link structure (which held the school bell and the entrance for all pupils except 6th formers) between St Helen's House and the Pearson Building had been demolished and replaced by a new decorative wall.