Old Police Station

Standing next to the site of a famous Victorian theatre in Colchester where Dickens regularly gave readings, the Old Police Station is a handsome grade II listed, neo-renaissance building, wrapping around a sunny courtyard, located just inside the Roman wall which still surrounds England's oldest town.

Originally built in the late eighteenth century as an old soldiers' home, it had a lofty assembly and dining annexe and large garden. Later it was converted into a police station with the annexe divided into three floors, a new wing added containing cells and its garden lost to development. Later still it became a public house before being rescued and turned into a studio complex for artists and makers.

The ground floor of the original building is now a café opening onto the courtyard. Its focus is a combined reception desk and café counter. Generous circulation encourages accidental meetings and conviviality, as do the large glazed screens opening onto studio spaces.

The project is the first completed component of Ash Sakula’s competition-winning masterplan for the St Botolph’s Cultural Quarter.