Wrexham Police Station

Wrexham Police Station stood on Bodhyfryd in Wrexham, Wales. It was a ten-storey tower built in the Brutalist style between 1973 and 1975. Designed by county architect Eric Langford Lewis and assistant county architect Stuart Brown, the building featured a reinforced concrete frame clad with pre-cast corrugated panels. A cantilevered tower rose 43 metres from the central stalk, making it Wrexham’s tallest structure for decades. The tower housed main offices, briefing rooms, interview suites and Special Branch accommodation. The station served as North Wales Police’s divisional headquarters until 2019. Rising maintenance costs and ageing facilities led the force to vacate the building in 2019. Cadw, the Welsh Government’s historic environment service, rejected a request to list the tower, describing it as a rare slab-and-podium design but lacking sophistication. Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones noted the tower had defined Wrexham’s skyline but called it “a bit of a dump.” Peregrine falcons nested on the roof for years, monitored by a webcam. The tower was demolished in a controlled explosion on 1 November 2020 during the national lockdown. A Lidl supermarket now occupies the site, replacing the civic area that once included the magistrates’ court, Waterworld, the Memorial Hall and the Crown Buildings.