Originally opened in 1972, the police station at 209-211 Chiswick High Road closed in 2021 and was sold by the Metropolitan Police to Birchgrove in April 2022. Redevelopment plans were originally submitted later that year, and, following two public consultations, planning permission has now been granted.
The new high-quality one and two-bed self-contained rented apartments will be available to rent to those aged 65 and over, with facilities including a 24-hour concierge service, restaurant, licenced bar, courtyard garden and wellness suite.
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The site has been designed to benefit the wider local community, with a dedicated space on the ground floor available for local groups, charities and individuals to hire, as well as for the police to hold local resident meetings. The police will also be provided with a separate dedicated facilities space which will enable officers to charge their body-worn cameras, iPads and radios, and means a police base will be re-established on the High Road following the station's closure.
The scheme will also provide a £400,000 contribution towards affordable housing in Hounslow, and has been assessed as highly sustainable – achieving a minimum 77% reduction in carbon emissions over the regulatory baseline.
The approval of the new Birchgrove community comes as demand for retirement accommodation across Hounslow increases: based on the 2015 city-wide London plan, Hounslow has a target of 135 new specialist homes for elderly people per year, meaning the redevelopment of the police station site will play a vital role in tackling Hounslow's retirement accommodation shortage. The approval also comes as demand for senior living rented accommodation continues to surge: according to the English Housing Survey, the number of pensioners in rented accommodation is set to double to over 1m in the next decade.
