Old Fire Station

by KKE Architects Ltd

Client Guthrie Roberts Ltd

Award RIBA West Midlands Award 2025

The award winner tells us, "KKE Architects were appointed by Guthrie Roberts in 2020 to prepare an application which would seek to re-address the potential of the existing buildings by being more creative and ambitious in its conversion. The approach was to retain to the opportunity for a commercial use on the ground floor. To allow this to happen, the proposal was to insert apartments into the roof space, leaving just two flats on the ground floor.

These roof-space apartments would require access, further daylighting and ventilation from the courtyard side, so a new access walkway was formed with extensions to existing stairways. The large canopy that cantilevers over the internal courtyard was retained and has been converted into a shared urban terrace and garden, providing elevated public space for those who will make the apartments home."

Extract from the RIBA Awards Jury citation, " Built in about 1938 as part of an early 20th-century civic centre, the Old Fire Station has been transformed with skill and finesse into 28 new apartments with retail space in the ground-floor former fire-engine bays. It stands in a prime location, situated between the Guildhall on the High Street and the River Severn, with views of Worcester Cathedral. The jury appreciated the client’s enthusiasm for their project and for the history of the original building, as well as the civic contribution and the value added by KKE Architects."

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Contractor Guthrie Roberts Ltd

Structural engineer AR Miles Associates

Environmental/M&E engineer One Creative Env

Quantity surveyor/cost consultant D J Payne Consulting

Planning consultant Greenaway Planning

Building control Cook Brown

Transport engineer Buro Happold

Interior design Elaine Lewis Design

Gross internal area 2,920m²