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Camden New Journal - by DAN CARRIER
Published: 29 November 2007

‘Unfit’ Hampstead police station will close
in three years

FOR sale: a listed Hampstead icon with massive room for development and a romantic criminal past.
Property shows slight scuffmarks from years of use as a political football.
Within three years, Hampstead police station in Rosslyn Hill will cease to exist, as a Camden police modernisation project will move patrols and cells out of their existing stations into a brand new “warehouse-style-base”, a long-awaited report said on Monday.
The future of Kentish Town police station in Holmes Road, the current base of most of Camden’s detectives, is also to be reviewed in terms of its “location... and future functionalities”, according to the Met’s asset management plan which has been in preparation for four years.
Although attention will focus on the fate of the Rosslyn Hill station – which has been seized on by both Lib Dems and Conservatives as a rallying-point for their campaigns to oust Glenda Jackson MP – the report also heralds dramatic change for the remaining police bases in Albany Street, West Hampstead, Holborn and most significantly Kentish Town.
But the proposal to dispose of Hampstead police station, though long-expected, prompted concern from both conservationists and politicians.
Conservative councillor Chris Philp said: “This is going to be the loss of a valuable asset for the local community with no specific proposals for what will replace it. Obviously Hampstead has been singled out because it is going to be the most valuable from a property development point of view.”
The Heath and Hampstead Society have already written to the Met outlining their concerns. Vice-chairman Gordon Maclean said on Monday: “Our view is that inevitably the police want to sell the building as a whole, but there is a building next to the police station, currently in poor condition, that they also own.
“We believe that this piece of the site could be used as a base; the police must have some presence in Hampstead and we oppose the idea of them abandoning Hampstead entirely.”
Camden police boss Chief Supt Mark Heath, who has repeatedly stated his belief that 19th century police stations like Kentish Town and Hampstead were unfit for modern policing, will head the three-month consultation with community groups due to start tonight (Thursday) at the Town Hall.
His staff said on Monday that he would be unavailable for interview this week.

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