Willmott Dixon has completed the new station for Northumbria Police in Newcastle.

Creating the new station at the top of Forth Banks involved the use of two existing buildings that were refurbished and connected together by a new building. It saw the six-storey Kings House, a former office building used by Network Rail, converted to become the main office space, while an adjacent Grade II-listed warehouse was updated and now provides a custody suite with 50 cells, the largest in the force, which will take detainees later this year.


Connecting both the refurbished facilities together is a new three-storey operations centre housing high-tech facilities for forensics and other detective work. The station is a short distance from the Central Railway Station and at one stage, the Willmott Dixon team was working just one metre from the East Coast mainline, one of the country's busiest rail lines.

The station has been five years in the making from initial planning and will now be the base for more than 600 officers and police staff.

(CD/JP)