Free school reveals plans for derelict Hackney Central Police Station
Conversion: Hackney Central Police Station is to become a free school. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
It has been occupied by squatters and lain empty for over a year but proposals are now in to convert the former Hackney Central Police Station into a Muslim free school.
The Grade II listed police station on Lower Clapton Road was bought by the government for £7.6m last year and handed to the Tauheedul Education Trust for use by the Olive School.
The school describes itself as a “Muslim faith school that promotes traditional British values and welcomes applications from all religions and none”.
Currently with 270 pupils on its roll, the school hopes to grow to a three-form entry with room for 630 pupils once it relocates from its temporary location in Stoke Newington. It plans to open in September 2017.
Planning documents reveal the school’s proposals to refurbish the listed police station, retaining the distinctive blue police street lamp as well as the ‘police’ engraving above the entrance door.
The curtilage listed “parade building” and outbuildings in the back yard will be demolished and a new three storey building erected.
View of the designs from St John’s at Hackney Church
A Victorian house at 32 St John’s Street will also be refurbished and used for administrative purposes.
The “historic” external staircase would be removed as it is deemed unsuitable for use by the school.
The school also proposes to keep a bank of four police cells. One former lock-up will be used as a medical room while another will be kept as a museum to show a “complete example of an historic cell” in the former police station.
The main pupil entrances will be located on Lower Clapton Road, Churchwell Path and St John’s Church Road.
View of the designs from Lower Clapton Road
The police station closed in 2013 and was bought by the Department for Education last year following the Tauheedul Education Trust’s “exhaustive search for school premises”.
Residents can comment on the proposals until 26 October.
The Olive School was approached for comment.
Three form entry means 3x as many pupils as St John and St James school at the other end of Churchwell Path, on a site that is probably half the size. Can’t help feeling the kids are going to be massively overcrowded and any chance of playing outdoors looks remote. I can see the building would make a good school, if a sensible number of kids were admitted.
The School is totally out of sync with the area and is an inappropriate amount of children to facilitate on this plot. Agree with former comment that a school on the site is not out of reach but not with the liability for incident this amount of fulfilment would bring. Massively overcrowds the area. The plans for the school look ugly as well. Does not fit in with the listed and period properties that remain in the area.
no more “faith” schools be they christian, jewish, hindu, sikh, muslim or flying spaghetti monster
let faith be a matter for home and individuals
we need to come together to build a society in which we all belong
Oh Zeus! Not another bloody “faith” school.
Unless the government starts opening schools for Labour party members, or West Ham fans, or vegetarians, or people born under Capricorn, or any other plainly ludicrous segregation and/or privileged treatment then why the ongoing pandering to religion?
i think the plans look.great. its an.excellent location for the school right in the centre on hackney.
be it any faith school im’ happy with it.
I agree the plans look great & will be using an existing building to build a school for the local community.Olive school has an “outstanding” rating from OFSTED it is preparing children for the future!
I think this will be wonderful..its local to a park major bus routes and stations.
Hackney is a lovely place to live ,because of the mix of faiths and people living together.
Well done Hackney!
Sadly I agree with the first two comments. With 3 intakes in each year those poor children will be restricted in playground space and open space is important at a young age. They do need a bigger property.
If skinners school could successful find a big enough space I can’t see why this school can’t. Then again I do believe school properties that are unoccupied shouldn’t be sold to private landlords that end up opening private schools which don’t even prioritise teaching English as a first language let alone “British values” which is alien to them.
Learning trust and the government should hold onto these empty school properties for public school use only .
In relation to faith school each for the own. If it works well no harm in it as long as religion is to a minimum, which I hear this school is doing, all you have to look at is their ofsted report.
I know plenty of friends and colleagues attending mass just so they can get their child into Catholic schoosl. It tell me as a parents there is some terrible public schools out their (good ones is hard to get your chuld into) and parents are disparate to get their child into faith school as the dicipline is much better as well as the level of education !
I think this is a great idea, its nice to see muslims want to be part of our community and to see them keep key elements of the police station for it to educate the children. Thumbs up
@Helen. Muslims have beeen part of the fabric of Hackney for over 4 decades. Its not a new ‘thing’. Just because hipsters and the like have moved in to Hackney and are now claiming it for themselves, dosen’t mean the existing muslim population of Hackney doesnt want to be part of the ‘community’. They are the community, along with the large Jewish population in the North of Hackney.
Glad you approve of the school, as long it teaches our kids well, that’s all that matters.
I have read their schools ofsted report and was rated OUTSTANDING school 2015 in all areas, and speaking to teachers they have said that’s hard to archive, so well done to them. In any case having an OUTSTANDING school in our bourght should always be welcomed regardless of which faith.
a lot of fake and almost identikit i think its wonderful comments here
too many children crammed into too small a space and an ugly extension looming over St John’s
no thank you
have a faith school if you want to whatever you believe in but dont cram children into a tiny space and dont ruin one of the few pleasant landscapes in the area
Joe – the school may be OUTSTANDING in its teaching ( it may even be WONDERFUL) but the issue here is the physical site, the questions being asked; is it large enough and is the proposed extension appropriate to the setting
I think the plans look great. They are an outstanding school and have utilised the space well to accomdate the large number of children. The school has a huge waiting list and with limited primary school places in Hackney school’s it’s doing a wonderful job by accommodating a three form entry and also provuding an outstanding education. The location is ideal for the children’s learning and development with a park closeby and a leisure centre across the road.
If it truly welcomes applications from pupils of all faiths or none, then why label it as a “Muslim faith” school? This just causes confusion (at best) and, at the very least, inspires understandable concern at such discrepant claims.
Surely any school which truly takes no account of any pupil’s religious background should be, and should therefore proclaim itself to be, a non-denominational school.
Really refreshing to see a worthy project being supported by the local council and learning trust. True, there are people queuing up to get their children into local Catholic schools because the most state schools are awful – well people should be queuing up to get into this school too then. If you look properly at their website and read their Ofsted report you will see they are already doing a marvellous job here and will continue to do so. They WILL and already do teach English at a high standard and clearly have thought through their plans for where the children will play – otherwise they would not have passed the Ofsted inspection.
The comments claiming the space is “used well” simply don’t take account of the fact there isn’t enough space in the first place. Government guidelines suggest a school this size should have a site 2 or 3 times the size.
It is noticeable this site did not even feature in the early sites identified for the school, all of which were larger and yet some were identified as having the weakness of being too small.
the issue is not about wether the schools teaching is outstanding, it is about wether the site is appropriate for a school of this size. all the evidence says it is not
Really good comments from both sides, however I have seen the plans and I think the school will add to value to that part of Hackney. I think it’s a great location for both the children as they have the church grounds, kings hall leisure centre across the road and for the locals as the school does a lot in terms of community work.
• A determination to develop outstanding British citizens who live their lives according to fundamental British values
• A Big Society ethos running through the school
• A commitment to service, respect and citizenship amongst pupils and parents
• A sense of personal responsibility and of responsibility to others
• A focus from day one on developing leadership and emotional intelligence
And there are not many OUTSTANDING SCHOOLS in Hackney, Olive school was Ofstead rated OUTSTANDING 2016.
Having been born and raised in Hackney I have seen it’s developments over the years and feel this is a huge step forward and there I am very much in favour of this school and would like to support its application.
Considering the Outstanding rating from Ofsted, the good work needs to carry on. Children are the future of every civilisation. I have 3 children attending schools elsewhere, and I encourage and support any form of education to provide for the needs of our children with care. I wish Olive School the very best.
Any centre which promotes education and removes ignorance is absolutely the way forward. The Olive school has maintained an outstanding reputation over the years. The organisation absolutely deserve this and must be supported by one and all. I encourage and support any form of education which will build the future of our children.
We are a democratic country, arent we? If those governors are in need to expand the school by moving to these new premises, why should anyone oppose this idea? I believe in choices, the “one size fits all” won’t work, comprehensive is certainly not for all.
The school is rated outstanding by Ofsted and teaches to a high standard with good community links. I can only see this getting better and better.
outstanding school but inadequate premises
there are 18 OUTSTANDING primary schools in hackney
The place was overcrowded with squatters, drugs users and alcoholics, this would have caused untold misery to all of us in the area. I think its and excellent idea and they should be congratulated on being proactive.
Please can Martyn (18th October comment) let me have a reference for the Government Guidelines regarding space requirement for schools.