Inside the abandoned Brentwood police station left overgrown and with messages scribbled in cells

-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Unless you've potentially been arrested, it's not often that we can get a look inside a police station - including the cells. But that is exactly what people can now experience thanks to archived pictures from an urban explorer.

Brentwood's former police station, which was located along the A1023 London Road, closed in April 2016. It's been vacant ever since then, laying abandoned for a number of years.

Over the years since the building has sat empty and derelict. Some squatters have been seen nearby whilst urban explorers have also paid it the occasional visit.

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Mark, 53, from Westcliff-on-Sea, visited the site in 2019 alongside his friend Lucas, 21. The pair crawled under a fence and walked straight through an open door at the main entrance of the property.

Members of the public are advised that they should not enter private property or abandoned buildings without express permission. Doing so could be classed as trespass.

The toilets in the cells
The toilets in the cells

"When we got inside, it was eerie," Mark said previously. "You can just imagine the tales of the humans who walked those corridors. We saw names and messages scratched on the doors and benches. It was very brutalistic in it's architecture inside, but outside it was quite an attractive building."

The police station was set over three years. A reception area was based on the ground floor, officers, locker rooms and a canteen were on the first floor and clerical workers were based on the top floor. The cells were located in the cellar below the ground floor.

The abandoned Brentwood police station in 2024
The abandoned Brentwood police station in 2024 -Credit:Jodie Bradley

Mark thought the cells were the most interesting part of the building. He said: "The cells were in the cellar down a dark corridor. It was great to be there and sit there. I sat on the bench. All I had around me was white tiles and a small metal toilet with no seat cover, with a very very high window with a limited amount of sunlight coming in."

Mark added: "We saw signs saying there might be asbestos in the building, so we were cautious not to stay too long. Behind the reception desk there was a lost property box which had books, a scarf and a shoe, just some every day items. It was almost like it was suspended in time. There were also signs saying 'Watch out- homeless people in here'.

Signs were dated 2007
Signs were dated 2007

"I think there must have been squatters in there after it closed. There were lots of old documents dating back to the early 2000s. There were lots of procedural documents and policies that I would have thought someone would have gone around and collected all the documents with personal data on."