Chiswick Police Station: work starts September on 50 flats

The empty police station at the corner of Chiswick High Road and Linden Gardens is about to come down. Kori Construction, the Corby contractor building the site out for retirement rental operator Birchgrove, says works are expected to start on site in September, with the finished building due in winter 2028. That is nearly five years after the Metropolitan Police locked the doors and two and a half years after Hounslow’s planning committee approved the scheme.

What replaces it is not a care home in the nursing sense, despite the contractor’s headline. It is 50 one and two-bedroom “extra care” flats for older people, all for rent, in two new buildings of between one and six storeys, with a restaurant, a bar, a wellness suite and a courtyard garden for residents. Two things in it are for everyone else: a ground floor community room that local groups can book at low or no cost, and a dedicated space that Kori says will “re-establish a police base following the station’s closure”.

What was approved

The permission is P/2023/1632, decided at Hounslow’s Planning Committee on 5 February 2024. Nine councillors voted for it, none against and three abstained. The formal description is the demolition of the former police station and “the erection of two buildings ranging between one to six storeys, providing 50 extra care homes for the elderly with shared facilities, community space at ground floor, cycle parking, landscaping and ancillary works”, subject to conditions and Section 106 and Section 278 agreements.

The officers’ committee report (PDF, 3MB) sets out the shape of it. The tallest part sits at the north-west corner of the site, five storeys with a set-back sixth. Along Chiswick High Road it drops to four storeys with a set-back fifth, and down Linden Gardens to three with a set-back fourth. A separate rear block along Prince of Wales Terrace is a single storey with a set-back second, holding four flats. The existing building, by comparison, is four storeys on the High Road stepping down to two on Linden Gardens.

Several details in that report matter more day to day than the massing:

• No parking. The scheme provides no car parking for residents, staff or visitors, six long-stay cycle spaces and two short-stay. Objectors argued at length that this would push demand onto Linden Gardens and the Old Market Place car park; officers pointed to the site’s PTAL 4 public transport rating and imposed a construction logistics plan.
• A £400,000 payment instead of affordable homes. None of the 50 flats is affordable housing. Birchgrove pays £400,000 towards extra care affordable housing elsewhere in the borough, with early and late-stage viability reviews that can raise the sum if the scheme turns out more profitable than modelled.
• A 43 square metre community room at the corner of the site, run by the operator, “available at a minimum cost”, with the booking system and pricing locked into the legal agreement “in perpetuity”. Met officers can book it like anyone else, and the report specifically mentions charging body-worn cameras, iPads and radios there while on duty in Chiswick.
• Working hours. Condition 16 limits demolition and construction to 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays unless the council agrees otherwise, and construction noise at the nearest homes is capped at 75 decibels during those hours.

The report also records that 36 objections were made across the two rounds of consultation, from residents on Linden Gardens and Prince of Wales Terrace, from the Chiswick Flower Market team, and from ward councillors including Joanna Biddolph, whose written objection focused on the loss of parking on Old Market Place and the lack of any on-site spaces for a building whose residents will have visitors, carers and deliveries.

Why the police left, and what “police base” means

The Met vacated the station in November 2021 to centralise its facilities, and the site was marketed for other community uses between September 2021 and May 2022 with no takers. That is what let the council accept the loss of a community facility under its Local Plan policy CI1: the building had been empty for more than 18 months and its owner no longer needed it.

The “police base” is not a police station reopening. On the planning record it is a right for officers to book the shared community room, and Kori’s own release describes “a separate dedicated facilities space” alongside it. Neither document says the space will have a public counter or fixed opening hours, so do not read it as somewhere to report a crime in person. Reporting still runs through 101, 999 and met.police.uk.

What the contractor says

Kori’s announcement on 3 August is its fourth job for Birchgrove, after schemes in Leatherhead and Banstead and one still under way at Hampton Court. It puts the site “within the Chiswick Conservation Area and fronting the popular Chiswick Flower Market” and lists what the design achieves on paper: a 100 per cent biodiversity gain through tree planting, green roofs and winter gardens; a 77 per cent cut in carbon emissions against Building Regulations Part L, saving 38.1 tonnes of CO2 a year; and a social value plan the company values at £23,796,829 through local hiring, apprenticeships and supplier spend. Managing director Jordan Connachie is quoted as saying: “It’s fantastic to get this scheme in Chiswick over the line and into contract.”

The Chiswick Calendar has reported that Kori is holding a “Meet the Contractor” meeting at Chiswick Town Hall on Wednesday 2 September at 6.30pm. We have not been able to reach a Kori notice confirming that date ourselves; if you live on Linden Gardens, Prince of Wales Terrace or around Old Market Place, treat it as worth checking with Kori on 01536 744 402 or info@koriconstruction.com before you go.

What it means for you

• If you live next to the site: the build, which runs to winter 2028, has legally binding working hours (8am to 6pm weekdays, 8am to 1pm Saturdays) and a noise cap. Breaches go to Hounslow’s planning enforcement team, and the construction management plan required by condition 16 must include a complaints procedure. Ask Kori for the site contact number at the outset.
• If you park on Old Market Place or Linden Gardens: the approved scheme adds no spaces and its residents, staff and visitors are expected to arrive without cars. Expect the pressure objectors predicted, and note that the Flower Market team told the committee it is working with the council to redesign Old Market Place. See our Chiswick planning news page for how to track any follow-on applications.
• If you run a club, choir or residents’ group: from 2028 there will be a 43 square metre town-centre room that must be let at minimal cost under the Section 106 agreement. Its booking terms will be public once the operator publishes its management plan.
• If you or a relative might want one of the flats: they are rental only, for older people needing some care, and Birchgrove has not yet listed Chiswick on its locations page. Nothing is on offer before completion, which Kori puts at winter 2028.

Our Chiswick roadworks and travel page will carry any lane or footway closures on Chiswick High Road or Linden Gardens once the construction logistics plan is published and the council notifies them.