Bell Language School goes into administration

Posted byCambridge Town OwlPosted inUncategorized

One of the most prominent and largest of the language schools in Cambridge founded by Frank Erskine Bell, is going into administration following a loss of over £500,000 in 2024

“It is with deep regret that we announce Bell Educational Services Ltd has made the difficult decision to wind down its operations and will cease to trade shortly.”

The news was announced on their website earlier

“How on earth can such a long-standing language school in Cambridge of all places go bust?”

“The company has faced significant cashflow challenges and has been unable to recover financially from the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite extensive efforts to secure a buyer for the business as a going concern, this has unfortunately not been possible.”

Above – Statement from Bell Educational Services Ltd which has replaced all of its existing webpages.

“What happens to the existing students?”

Beth Kennedy explains:

“English UK is finding replacement courses for some 125 students affected by the news under the student Emergency Support Scheme (SES), which obliges British Council-accredited centres to offer places to those whose schools have closed suddenly. The affected students are currently studying at Bell’s Cambridge and London locations, while the St Albans site will have no students by the closure date at the end of this month.”

Above – Beth Kennedy for The PIE 24 Oct 2025

She goes onto write that this is not part of a wider trend.

“Unexpected closures do happen, but they are rare. Bell English’s financial set up was very unusual for our industry as it was run by a charitable foundation. This is a very sad closure, but we don’t see it as part of a wider trend.” 

Beth Kennedy quoting Huan Japes of English UK, 24 Oct 2025

There are other factors that led to the collapse of the firm

What’s striking is that no other investor could be found to take on the business as a going concern. Especially given their ample building and grounds around the corner from the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (see G-Maps here).

The two places to look at if you’re interested in the further details are:

The latter’s annual report for 2024 records a loss of £561,000 for the year. Furthermore, the directors’ report details a number of additional risks beyond the impact of CV19:

  • The language school market is vulnerable to global economic and geo-political shocks. Given that its target market is an affluent but fragile one, anything from Western economic sanctions through to internal political instability can result in some markets drying up with very little warning.
  • The language school market is also vulnerable to domestic politics – the continued inflammatory headlines from the media and the official opposition party, combined with TeamNigel and the recent street protests inevitably get global news coverage which puts people off – noting also that there are a host of other countries that can and do provide English language tuition – including countries that don’t have English as a first language.
“What happens now?”

We await the outcome of the administration process – in particular how many pennies in the pound each creditor / persons owed money will get once the assets have been liquidated.

“Could it come back as a language school under another firm?”

It could do – especially if potential investors felt that they would get a better deal from the flash sale of distressed assets rather than having a buyout. Not knowing the details of the processes of firms going into administration and possibly liquidation, I defer to the knowledge of others on this. But if it doesn’t remain as an educational establishment, getting a change of use for something else – whether housing or employment use, would be relatively straight forward. The buildings do not appear to be listed or of local historical interest.

“The site is large enough for a speculative developer to snap it up, flatten it, and build some bland tower blocks on it given the Cambridge Biomedical Campus’s housing needs”

I wrote about the CBC’s housing study last year here. Basically their housing need for all of the people they want to employ in addition to those already there exceeds the total amount included in the current and the emerging local plan to 2040. But then this is not accounting for whatever the Cambridge Growth Company will be recommending to the Housing Secretary – note the CGC’s latest set of news updates here.

While it would be sad to see the 1930s-era buildings being demolished, the past 15 years of following local government and planning applications in and around Cambridge tells me that the site will be snapped up for housing and replaced by medium-high flats.

If it has to be housing, then ideally the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and partners should be looking to snap up the site and build some keyworker housing for staff at the hospitals. That’s probably what I would go with, but ultimately the appointed administrators will have to sell the site to the highest bidder in order to repay creditors.

A sad end for an institution that has been around for nearly three quarters of a century.

If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to: