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INTERESTING BUILDINGS / SHIRLEY HOUSE · CAMDEN, LONDON

The police HQ
that could house students.

A former British Transport Police headquarters could become 345 student rooms. The proposal keeps its concrete frame, adds three storeys and offers £13.7 million toward housing elsewhere.

By Ben · Fintok8 min read8 sources ↓
Existing Shirley House at Camden Road and Camden Street, before the proposed student-housing conversionRegent’s Canal neighborhood context, with Shirley House visible in the distance
Photographs and credits ↓

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8 sources · Research checked October 17, 2026

DP9 for Kilburn and District Properties; published by Camden Council

2026-08-27

Shirley House: Planning Statement, application 2026/3757/P

Submitted scheme, ownership/development team, 345 student bedspaces, design evolution, retained frame, extensions, amenities and proposed affordable-housing contribution.

Primary applicant document. Relevant sections: 1.4; 2.1–2.4; 4.13–4.15; 5.7–5.22; 5.37–5.38; 7.53; 8.1–8.2. Claims of officer agreement and BPS review are attributed to the applicant; no executed Section 106 agreement or approval is inferred. Local PDF and extraction retained in the London carousel source bundle.

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Historic England; published by Camden Council

2026-10-13

Historic England consultation response: Shirley House

Building history, conservation-area setting, listed neighbors and the agency’s support for redevelopment/retrofit alongside concerns about height and massing.

Primary four-page consultation letter, reference P10005257. Supports redevelopment in principle; identifies heritage harm. It is not the council’s decision. Notes emerging-plan indicative capacity of 197 student units versus the proposed 345 beds.

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Canal & River Trust; published by Camden Council

2026-10-16

Canal & River Trust consultation response: Shirley House

Canal-side scale, deck removal, bridge setting and questions about public access and management.

Primary response, reference CRTR-PLAN-2026-47711. Welcomes aspects of the canal improvements but requests amendments and conditions; does not itself decide the application.

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London Borough of Camden

2026-10-17

Camden planning application 2026/3757/P: live open-data record

Registered September 28, 2026; status remained Registered in the latest live check.

Ordinary public HTTP 200 rechecked 2026-10-17 at 19:37 UTC. Record last_uploaded 2026-10-17T02:32:07.000. The date identifies the checked snapshot, not an approval date. No start or completion is confirmed.

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Greater London Authority

2026-10-17

Planning London Datahub: Camden-2026_3757_P

Application Received, no recorded decision or decision date; consultation comments listed until November 1, 2026.

Ordinary public HTTP 200 rechecked 2026-10-17 at 19:37 UTC. Underlying source last_updated October 9 and last_synced October 10; this is an older underlying timestamp than Camden’s own live dataset. Recheck the deadline/status before publication. Target decision date is not a confirmed hearing date.

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Camden Planning Service; AHMM/development team; The Townscape Consultancy

2026-07-14

Shirley House / Camden Point: Development Management Forum presentation

Source of the four authentic photographs used in the story: existing building, canal-side view, Camden Street context and Regent’s Canal context.

Photos extracted from PDF pages 12, 5, 27 and 29. Context photos on pages 27/29 credited to The Townscape Consultancy; individual photographers otherwise not identified. Images cropped from the PDF; no generative edits. No express reusable image license was found: private review only pending permission or replacement. The July proposal drawings are not treated as final submitted plans and are not used in the article.

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CamdenToday

2026-10-17

Shirley House Camden Road student-room proposal

Local reporting brought the pending 345-room proposal and consultation concerns into the October 17 news cycle.

Discovery/reporting credit. Full text and visible publication date were retrieved through the web search tool in the prior carousel research; direct access returned 403. All material article claims rely on independently retrieved primary documents, not this report alone.

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