Back in 1996 I spent my first day at Erskine. It was f-f-f-f-f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g. I was crouched over a heater in Studio B, doing a stint as the TLC presence during the period when we were moving in.

It was a time of hope and desperation. A group of eight TLC supporters had thrown their collective life savings together in an effort to buy the site. We won the tender but the banks wouldn’t come to the party. In the end we lost our money. The owners allowed us to rent the premises but we were like squatters in a decaying castle. Pigeons were everywhere and their poo was steadily rotting the wood. The roof was full of holes. The plumbing didn’t work. Thrill seekers would break in during the night, hoping to find (or not find) ghosts.

Sometimes in the life of a creative idea it is sufficient just to survive. We survived for four years and suddenly an unlikely saviour arrived. It was Jenny Shipley and one of the last acts of her government was to change the funding for independent education providers. We were able to halve our fees and students flocked to us.

I decided not to invest in crates of champagne and instead set up the TLC Educational Trust. At the time it seemed that our future depended on having some capital – we didn’t want to experience another failure to purchase. Actually TLC is an unusual company because we draw no profit – everything is returned to the school. We deal with creativity but in financial terms we’re very conservative and there are no perks.

Erskine went through further bizarre twists. We signed another deal to buy the place but the Wellington City Council effectively pulled the plug because they decided not to under-write the cost of the field and the heritage garden. Eventually the deal lapsed (with no further loss of money other than the cost of lawyers and valuers). Then the property was sold from under us and the new owner is what later became the Wellington Company. We negotiated a ten year lease and the buildings continued to decay.

Erskine urgently needed seismic strengthening and a major makeover. Towards the end of 2007 the owners asked if we would shorten our lease and after much discussion we said yes. We felt there wasn’t a lot of choice. The repairs would require us to leave for at least a year and it was pointless to depart, return and depart again. So we set to work with our Taita site which will be ready to receive the school in January 2009.

I’m hugely fond of Erskine and it’s sad to leave. Under other circumstances it would have had a long-term future as a school. Our thoughts are with the Save Erskine College Trust who have battled for years to save a remarkable piece of Wellington’s heritage. During the time TLC has been here the history came back to life. In a curious way we felt at home with the creative tradition of the nuns who ran the school long before we arrived. We hope its owners can navigate the economic downturn and restore Erskine with all the care and reverence it deserves.

Jonathan Milne