Time is running out for a disused Victorian hospital in Colindale, with a developer launching plans for hundreds of new homes on the site next Friday.

Colindale Hospital, in Colindale Avenue, will become home to up to 750 new properties as part of a wider regeneration of the area, if proposals are approved.

Developer Fairview New Homes, which bought the site early last year, will put its plans to residents at a public exhibition at the RAF museum, in Grahame Park Way.

Company director Peter Cobb said: "We have been working hard to evolve a regeneration scheme that is not only high quality and environmentally friendly but also delivers real benefits to people."

A spokesman for the firm said the plans were only at a "conceptual" stage and the exhibition could identify issues of importance to residents that were missed by architects.

He said the planning application was "some way off", but the propoals tie in with Barnet Council and the Mayor of London's aims to construct an entirely new community in Colindale, including 10,000 new homes.

Fairview New Homes bought the 16.3-acre site from Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust, and the sale of the mostly derelict buildings enabled the trust to refurbish its units in Edgware Community Hospital and Barnet Hospital.

The proposals involve knocking down most of the hospital, which is more than a century old, and developing a public square, health facilities and a new Barnet College building.

The only remnant of the old hospital will be the listed administration block.

Heloise Brown, conservation adviser for the Victorian Society, which works to preserve the Victorian face of London, said the development would be "an appalling waste of Colindale's heritage".

She added: "While some demolition of the smaller ancillary blocks on the site may be necessary, we see no reason to destroy the pre-1948 buildings. To sweep these away would be to squander the potential of the historic buildings."

The exhibition will take place on Friday, July 11, from 4pm to 8pm, Saturday, July 12, from 10am to 2pm, and Sunday, July 13, from 10am to 2pm.