The former Arbour Square police station, which once held the Kray Twins and alleged Provisional Irish Republican Army terrorists, started its life 170 years ago.
The walls that have stood for over a hundred and seventy years have had life gently breathed back into them.
On 17th July 1841, the Home Office authorised the Receiver of the Metropolitan Police to rent a plot of ground from the Mercers’ Company for the erection of a Police Court and a Police Station.
Rent was set at £50 per annum for a period of 61 years. The Police Station cost a total of £4,143. A century later, in July 1944, the Station was badly damaged by a V1 ‘Flying Bomb.’ 18 people were injured, but three months later the station had been repaired and it re-opened. The building served its original purpose for a further 55 years until it finally closed its doors to the last constable in 1999.
The building is a now mix of new build sections carefully designed to empathise with the existing fabric of the mid-Victorian original structure, which has been retained and restored wherever possible.