Revitalising Nottingham’s Former Police and Fire Station

The Site

The site lies within a block bound by Shakespeare Street to the north; North Church Street to the east; Burton Street to the south; and South Sherwood Street to the west. The planning application for Vita’s proposals covers the Former Police Headquarters & Central Fire Station.

All buildings are Grade II listed and are currently unoccupied. This application does not include the Guildhall – several different options are being explored to revitalise this building. This will be subject to a separate planning application in the future.   

The former Central Fire Station and Police Headquarters built in the 1930’s

The existing buildings on the site

The former police and fire station built in the 1880’s

The Proposals

The proposals will create a total of 610 new student bed spaces:

  • 246 studio-led offer: The Stations in the refurbished Former Police and Central Fire Station, with an additional single storey added, which will be set back from the facade. Ground floor amenity spaces will be accessed through a new lobby on Shakespeare Street. The studios will range in size from 16m2 to over 20m2 to accommodate additional accessibility needs.

  • 364 cluster-led offer: The Tower will form a new 18-storey building with a publicly accessible food hall, which will provide food and drink options to students and the public, providing a vibrant dining experience in the heart of Nottingham. 

  • The Former Police Headquarters & Central Fire Station will be fully retained. To enable the construction of Vita’s House of Social building a modern extension to the Guildhall will be removed along with an existing building the centre of the courtyard.

The new food hall will be accessible to students and the public via South Sherwood Street.

Design

The design process has incorporated architectural cues from nearby precedents into the design. This includes the chamfered corners of the existing 1930’s building, which has been replicated on the new building to soften the edges. Likewise, from the existing corners, the crown and corners replicate the vertical fins to add depth to the facade.

Like the existing building, the windows on the new building will be recessed and aligned vertically with those above and below.

To remain in keeping with the lighter shade of buildings in this part of the city, the new building will predominantly use grey bricks on the facade. This will be complemented by glazed bricks and ceramic panelling on the crown and corner facades, to fit with the existing buildings on the site.

The current courtyard will be adapted to create an outdoor space for students.

Sustainability

The development has been designed to prioritise the retention of the existing buildings, reusing and extending them to create new student accommodation which will reduce the embodied carbon associated with the development. The environmental impacts associated with transport will also be reduced due to the development being sustainably location adjacent to a wide range of existing transport services and amenities as well as the proposals encouraging the use of sustainable transport to and from the site.

Additionally, the development will be subject to the requirements of the interim Future Buildings Standard, utilising low carbon technologies to ensure that a reduction in carbon emissions is achieved. Finally, the development will be targeting BREEAM UK Refurbishment & Fit Out and BREEAM UK New Construction certifications and will be designed with climate resilience in mind, future-proofing the development from the impacts of climate change.