A hospital has been sold for less than half-a-million pounds after it went up for auction.

Eastern Daily Press: Protesters camapign outside the former Lowestoft Hospital to try and stop the sale of the building.Picture: Nick ButcherProtesters camapign outside the former Lowestoft Hospital to try and stop the sale of the building.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2018)

Lowestoft Hospital on Tennyson Road, Lowestoft, went under the hammer on Thursday, October 25 selling for £475,000.

It closed in 2016 but the site was still owned by James Paget University Hospital. While it was open it provided community care for the elderly and housed a minor injuries unit.

The earliest parts of the building date back more than 150 years.

It comes just days after the town council pleaded with James Paget Hospital not to sell it.

Eastern Daily Press: Protesters camapign outside the former Lowestoft Hospital to try and stop the sale of the building.Picture: Nick ButcherProtesters camapign outside the former Lowestoft Hospital to try and stop the sale of the building.Picture: Nick Butcher (Image: Archant © 2018)

In a letter it said: 'Local people cannot afford, economically and in health terms, to continue to be subject to increasingly remote and inaccessible health services.'

'It is unacceptable that people here, who cannot afford the taxi fares and significant other additional costs and practical complications that arise from trying to access remote health services.'

It was sold at the allsop auction house.