[Ojay]

Police Divsional HQ, Bury - Visited By Ojay & AndyJ23UK.

The names have been changed to protect the innocent

Shouts to Buddah for nailing this one.

After reading a report and seeing a lead on this a few weeks back I decided to haul my arse over to Bury to see what all the fuss is about before the place becomes as no go.

I haven't been able to find much history on this place, and TBH CBA

Once inside, it's quite something, with the site divided between two tower buildings.

We first made our way to the Main Building (Tower 1).


Main Desk





The Custody Suite, opened on June 12th 1990.





Guilty or not Guilty?



Lockup





Charge Sheet



After a good old mooch we headed down to the basement, CCTV (WTF?) so we crept about, sifting through the sensitive data and Police files etc that were stacked up ready for further removal.

(The place has been massively stripped within the last week, and I would say there will be nothing left by the time of reading this thread)


Papers



Stuff









Evidence







Property Room



Shooting Range



We then made our way up the Main Tower, most of which was un-lit with empty rooms & offices which sadly have been stripped.

There was a large amount of interesting items and articles left behind, including remmnants of intelligence, briefings etc.

The only thing I bothered to take pics of was the COMMS ROOM







I then headed up to the rooftop as you do, and took this quick shot of the 2nd building (Tower 2).

[Ojay]

We then made our way back down and headed over to the 2nd building (Tower 2).

This was largely offices, again which had been stripped. On the upper floors was a gymnasium, snooker room, bar, Sleeping quarters and dining area...















Again I headed up to the roof to grab some final shots before GTFO

Main Building - (Tower 1)



New Police HQ



Brrraaaaap



Props to AndyJ, this was a sickkk explore and glad we got to see it before it's too late

[Jim Gillette]

Originally Posted by ojay

This picture is absolutely hilarious.

[Gone]

I really need to get here, Looks sick!

[Gibbo]

Outstanding. Expect the media to pick up on this pretty sharpish like the MEN did with Wigan.

[sneak]

If it stays in here then I doubt that should happen for a bit. Hopefully not at least until its completely stripped and well on the way to demolision. Then they will look like proper muppets. Hahaha.

Glad you went OJ, big up mate. Its made me happy to as i really had to get in and around the place rather rapid, and as a result spent about 20 mins going everywhere in the place, then about an hour sifting through the shite and reading loads and loads of files. From your pics I can see we saw pretty much everything of interest.

Big up

[Ojay]

Yeah, a lot has been removed, I did have a good sift through, made interesting reading some of them papers & files

[sneak]

From your pics not much has gone since we did it!

[Ojay]

Originally Posted by sneak

From your pics not much has gone since we did it!

Seemed to be quite a bit stacked up you know where, ready to go

Would love to have seen what was on those Hard-drives

[NorthMancBeds]

Good work to Buddah for cracking this and all who have popped in since. Just to add a bit of detail; the station was designed for Lancashire County Police by Lancashire County Architect Roger Booth and built between 1968 and 1970. It was a development of an earlier design at Chorley, still in use. Booth is also responsible for the listed Radar Station at Fleetwood. Most architectural and civic guides refer to the overbearing nature of the blocks, though as a body of work there is a certain comms/tech aesthetic that is worthy of comment.

At Bury, as well as the main building, there are stable blocks and kennels. The middle floors of the smaller tower were used as dorm rooms for single male police officers and a matron's apartment until 1994. The shooting range was also designed to be a regional command centre in case of nuclear attack and the doors have rubber seals to make the space air tight. As documented here by Ojay, there is a gym at the top floor of the smaller tower, this is as Chorley. The cell area is all lit from above by glass block rooflights and the apparent impenetrability of the lower levels and its monolithic base act as a solid counterpoint to the largely glazed facades of the towers. The L shape of the plan wraps around a yard to the rear and the entire complex cleverly negotiates the sloping ground upon which it is constructed. Much of the interior is lined with plywood panels and the stair and interior wood is predominantly stained teak. There is a vehicle lift down to the sub-basement where the original coal fired boilers once burned.

Had this knowledge burning my brain so just thought I'd get it down.

peace
NMB