A planning application to convert the disused Bolingbroke Hospital into Wandsworth’s first ‘free school’ has been approved.

The new Bolingbroke Academy will provide enough space for 800 pupils aged between 11-19.

It will open in September 2012 when the first year-seven children will be admitted.

The surrounding area has a high proportion of young families but does not currently have a local state secondary school.

The academy will be free to attend and funded directly by the Government - it will be governed independently and managed by education charity ARK Schools.

A new GP surgery will also be created on the site which could employ around 20 staff and provide as many as 180 patient appointments every day.

Council leader Ravi Govindia has welcomed the committee's decision: "This is terrific news for parents in south Battersea who have worked long and hard to make this dream a reality.

"We hope this will be the first of many free schools to spring up in Wandsworth so parents living here will have real choices over how and where their children are schooled.

The internal layout of the Grade II Listed building will be converted to create a light, modern teaching environment. Heritage features, including the nursery rhyme tiles in the former Children's ward, will be sensitively preserved.