It was late autumn 2014 when Cala Homes held a public exhibition of its development plans for the police station site in Portesbery Road.
However, wheels sometimes grind slow. We haven’t followed progress blow-by-blow, but we’ve been aware of issues relating to the site, in particular about site drainage. Nevertheless, at the beginning of this year the borough council granted permission for the “Erection of 35 residential units (comprising of 9 apartments in a 3 storey block and a mix of two storey dwelling houses (with rooms in the roof and 3 storey town houses).” [If the brackets in that bit of text seem a little odd, then we apologise. But it’s a direct quote from SHBC.]
As some people have already noticed – you could hardly miss it if you passed the site – work has started.
We doubt that many residents will shed a tear at the disappearance of the building. Its ‘brutalist’ architecture has fallen out of favour.
The Camberley Eye 
When I was posted to Camberley I worked out of the old Police Station on the corner of the High Street and Portesbery Road, before moving to the new one, now being demolished. I am sad that it is going, not because of its bland design, but because ALL police stations are now disappearing in an effort to save money. It happened with police houses, and they lived to regret that decision after many officers were unable to afford to live in Surrey.
Ken Clarke/
I thought you’d have some strong feelings, Ken. I deliberately wrote that people wouldn’t be sad at the disappearance of the BUILDING, because the economics and politics behind the changes are far more debatable.
I’m sure that style of architecture will be back in fashion in a few years time.
Steve, I’m planning to start a ‘Save the Allders building’ pressure group. The building is an icon and unique in the town centre. If we destroy it, we destroy part of Camberley’s future history. A bit like knocking down Euston Arch – it’ll be seen by generations to come as an unforgivable act of vandalism…..
Sure it will remain very similar to House of Fraser or Harvey’s as it was, full of asbestos too costly to flatten.
If I remember correctly, a load of asbestos was removed from the HoF some years ago. And, of course, all the asbestos has been removed from the ground floor of the Allders building too.
Hopefully there will be a few more police on duty on July 9th as Camberley will be inundated with Gypsy & Travellers for a Talent show at the Camberley Theatre,guess the Council have contingency plans for parking …… etc
We shall see. I’m an eternal optimist.