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8th Mar 2019

Planning success for former HM Prison Kingston site

A scheme to regenerate Portsmouth’s former HM Prison Kingston into 267 homes has been given planning approval and listed building consent by Portsmouth City Council’s Planning Committee.

Grant Associates is designing the landscape strategy for the Victorian gaol, which is being masterplanned by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios on behalf of City & Country Group. The scheme is expected to be brought forward as a joint venture with Vivid Homes delivering the new build elements of the scheme.

In an amendment to the 2016 planning and listed building consent, the total number of one, two and three-bedroom homes has been increased from 230 to 267 units, of which 183 are expected to be affordable housing delivered by Vivid Homes.

Completed in 1877, the iconic structure is a prime example of a radial prison design that found favour in the late 19th century. The idea was that prisoners, housed in radiating cells, could be observed from a central rotunda.

Closed as a prison in 2013, the building’s cell wings, chapel and infirmary will be re-modelled for residential use, with new-build, low-rise apartment blocks located to the edges of the site. The former prison’s listed walls will be retained and its gatehouse redeveloped, incorporating a small café.

Grant Associates’ design concept for the scheme considers the landscape as primarily shared space, to bring residents together. Guided by the concept of ‘Living in a Garden’, the landscape strategy also aims to unite the site’s historic and new build elements.

 

Planning approval and listed building consent for the scheme is subject to the completion of a Section 106 Agreement.