A campaign to save a 185-year-old building opened by royalty as an infant’s school for the poor has failed.

Councillors voted to allow Kingston College to demolish the Penny School building in Richmond Road to make room for a three-storey college extension.

Neighbours who objected to the planned demolition said the Penny School, built in 1828, was “a memorial to the town's educational and philanthropic history”.

Surrey Comet features editor June Sampson also wrote in support, saying the "modest building" may be unique in Britain.

The Kingston Society said the loss of the Penny School would be an “unthinkable sacrifice”, although the development would improve the “dilapidated” site.

College principal Peter Mayhew-Smith said after the college’s success: “It is a real shame.

"It does symbolise something important in Kingston’s heritage and we understand that.

“[But] we simply cannot work round that building.”

The new development will replace old and poor-quality academic buildings on the Richmond Road site.

The college hopes to open the building in January 2015, Mr Mayhew-Smith added.

The history of the Penny Gallery dates back to 1817, when it was decided to build a public school for the borough's poorest children.

It got its name from the fact sponsors paid teachers a penny a week.

The infant school was opened on September 1, 1828, by the Duchess of Clarence and was said to be the second oldest educational building in Kingston, after the Lovekyn Chapel.

Committee chairman Coun Vicki Harris, who oversaw the decision on Thursday, said: “It was with quite a heavy heart that we approved that one.

“They have done everything that you could possibly want from a developer – apart from having to knock down the Penny School building.

“Unfortunately we could not have refused it because of that, because that would have been laughed out of the planning inspectorate.”

The campaign to save the school building suffered a blow in April when Kingston Society George Rome Innes was told by English Heritage the building had failed in a bid to be given protected listed status.

Councillor Ken Smith voted against the plans. He said: “It could have been argued with the inspector that it was something worth keeping.

“One it is gone it is gone. It may not have been a listed building but nevertheless it was part of Kingston heritage.

“I think they could have done more to preserve that small Penny School.”

The Kingston Society’s submission to the council said although the development would improve the “dilapidated” site, the loss of the Penny School would be an “unthinkable sacrifice”.