dana prison

Location: Shrewsbury
Client: The Osborne Group/ EGO Shrewsbury
Status: Outline Planning Permission Granted 2017

Reuse of extensive buildings in prime location
This prison in Shrewsbury was decommissioned in 2013. Located at the northern tip of the market town, the prison sits at a pivotal location adjacent to the River Severn and the main line railway station.

Sensitive reuse of historic fabric
Listed Grade II, the site was constructed by Thomas Telford to the designs of John Hiram Haycock. The existing historic visible structures are typically Victorian with remains of the original Georgian prison intact.

Students in former cells
The mixed use proposal for the site will see the transformation of the two main prison wings (the four storey men's wing and 2 storey women's wing) converted into student accommodation. A cell and a half creates an en-suited student room and the retained large atrium spaces provide communal living and kitchen areas. The gate house and former governors quarters will be converted into residential apartments along with the Lancasterian School to the north of the site. Three new buildings will be constructed between the listed structures to provide additional residential accommodation, while the former kitchen at the centre of the site will provide A1/ A3 space.

Exploiting the key features of the site
The imposing boundary wall - a trademark of the sites' incarceration - will now become the backdrop to a walled garden, with landscaping linking the new and old buildings within.