Built to a fittingly Brutalist design half a century ago as a stronghold detaining IRA terrorists, and later holding the most dangerous jihadists, Paddington Green police station was once Scotland Yard’s answer to Alcatraz.
Prisoners described being shut away for interrogation in its 16 subterranean cells, with their two-inch thick doors and sound-proofed walls, as a Kafkaesque hell that could unhinge the most resilient mind. No one ever escaped.
Since it is topped by a 15-storey accommodation block, this formidable concrete bunker also served as a billet for the Met’s fearsome Territorial Support Group, and housed officers drafted into Central London to marshal protest marches and demonstrations, as well as other potentially troublesome events.
