Former Glasgow police headquarters can be converted into 'stylish' flats

Plans to convert a former police headquarters on Turnbull Street into flats have been approved.
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


A derelict former police headquarters on the edge of Glasgow’s east end can be converted into “stylish” flats after plans were given the go ahead.

Detail Residential has received permission from Glasgow City Council to revamp the B-listed former court and police station on Turnbull Street.

It intends to offer 31 homes, with a mix of one, two, three and four bedroom properties. Part of the building will be demolished under the plans.

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The firm has promised to “sensitively restore” the “dilapidated” police headquarters to provide “stylish contemporary living in Glasgow’s east end”.

Facing one of Glasgow’s oldest churches, the A-listed St Andrew’s in the Square, the building — which sits within the city’s central conservation area — opened in 1906 as Glasgow district court, central police office and the police museum.

Plans to convert a former police headquarters on Turnbull Street into flats have been approved.
Plans to convert a former police headquarters on Turnbull Street into flats have been approved. Image from Detail Residential.

It includes offices, a court hall and cells built around a courtyard. Due to its listed status, the developers said their car-free proposal was “carefully considered in order to retain and rejuvenate as much of the existing fabric as possible”.

Initially, the developers had planned to fully retain the building and provide 45 apartments. However, in a statement submitted to the council, they stated: “By providing this amount of units within the restrictions of the existing site there were negative impacts on privacy of the proposed residents and existing neighbours.”

Plans to convert a former police headquarters on Turnbull Street into flats have been approved.
Plans to convert a former police headquarters on Turnbull Street into flats have been approved. Image from Detail Residential

The number of flats has been reduced to 31, with the north connecting cell block in the courtyard to be demolished.

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The developers added: “By removing this section of building we reduce the massing on the site but also increase the amount of available courtyard space which is to be re-landscaped as communal open amenity for the proposed residents.”

The courtyard will be turned into a communal central garden.

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Plans also stated nature has “begun to take over” the building, which has “lain vacant for almost a decade”, with “plants and ivy making good progress in spreading over the elevations and gutters”.

They added there is water ingress throughout and the building is “in a very poor state” internally, with “missing floors, failing joists, collapsed ceilings and general rubble spread in all rooms”.

A comprehensive contaminated land assessment will need to be approved by the council before work can begin, with a remediation strategy for any risks.

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