Grey Mare Lane Police Station

Redeveloping the redundant Police Station, the design forms a new landmark headquarters.

Two strips of development, formed around a new public realm form the later phases. With a pavilion aesthetic in mind, the space is flexible and thus can create smaller, individual units for start-ups or much larger, or linked spaces, for more established businesses.

Connectivity through the site will be important for maximising the potential development. A central, landscaped spine that extends fully across the site will form a new ‘street’ that will open up the development to Grey Mare Lane and the Leisure Centre beyond. The new gateway (phase 1), building will straddle this axis, so not to block the connectivity, whilst also providing a sense of enclosure to the new public realm.

The location will require a healthy parking allowance, yet we seek to limit the negative visual impact of cars and give more emphasis to the newly created public realm. Thus we have taken the opportunity to utilise the existing basement and associated access routes for the majority of the parking provision.

To give a visual marker to the proposed campus uses, we propose a subterranean squash court, accessed from the basement that will pop up through the public realm. A glass cube will allow for spectators at (the above) ground floor, whilst also create a piece of ‘sporting artwork’ in the most visible part of the site.