The Area Headquarters of the Thames Valley Police in Colwell Drive was built in 1998. The sloping roof and 30 meter high mast looks like the bridge of a ship. The translucent central area looks to me like the glowing heart of Dr Who’s tardis – which after all was a police box.

Abingdon Borough Police were set up in 1836. Until recently the Police occupied the building near the Old Gaol (now waiting re-use).

Thames Valley Police was formed in 1968 from the Berkshire police force, of which Abingdon was a part, and from the forces of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Oxford City and Reading Borough.

Here is a picture taken later on in the day ( a few days ago). The Area HQ includes office accomodation and a control centre. But of more interest are the custody cells, the exercise yard, and the CCTV monitoring room.

Here is the traffic at St Helens Wharf when I got back at about 6:50 this evening.

I hear it was even worse during the day. The exit from West St Helen Street gets blocked by anxious drivers going down High Street not wanting to give an inch to other cars or pedestrians.

So far, not that so good.

Pulpit House at 1 The Square Abingdon is currently being advertised “To Let”.

The bushes at the front are overgrown, and the current occupiers have been filling skips with old files and VDUs.

I did hear that the Marketing company trading there have gone out of business.

About three years ago there was talk that JD Wetherspoon, a large and glitzy pub chain, wanted to take over the building, but Wetherspoons did not get planning permission and so pulled out.

The building does appear to have little parking space, and is likely to be listed, and so needs a little innovative thinking before being used by anybody – a bit like the Old Gaol. A previous owner won a design award and this plaque from the Vale for their use of Pulpit House.

It was built in 1862 for use as a Congregational Church (Congregational churches were a loose confederation of self governing churches). In 1862 there were three tenements in front of the church which were taken down and rebuilt using the same bricks in Spring Road. The Borough Council then added the iron railings to improve the look of the area in front.

In the 1960s the Congregationalists decided to sell the building and use the proceeds to build a church in South Abingdon. To this end they worked with the South Abingdon Association. The plan was to provide buildings for both church and community use. The Congregationalist also began to share the Trinity Church building from 1968 and vacated Pulpit House.

But it took a long time before they realised a sale. Planning difficulties meant that when it was sold in 1980 the sum was not what had been expected.

The South Abingdon Association was also going its own way, and the church building never got built in South Abingdon. Instead Preston Road Community Centre, and the Magic Midget pub were built.

Hopefully little kids in their buggies will NOT have to breathe the fumes of the traffic along Stert Street like our two did.
It would be good if St Helens Wharf could be calm and peaceful for people out for a stroll by the river…
or out on their bikes.