Eric Parry set to scoop City of London cybercrime courthouse contest

It is understood the practice saw off Bennetts Associates, AHMM, Hawkins/Brown, Allies and Morrison, and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to land the project, which will replace the Brutalist 1964 Fleetbank House close to the Royal Courts of Justice, Old Bailey and Inns of Court.

Planned to complete in 2025, the court complex will deliver a ‘modern, operationally effective, resilient, compliant and sustainable’ judicial centre focusing on civil work, fraud, economic crime and cybercrime. 

The project will create a 9,670m² home for the City’s magistrates and civil courts, featuring 18 hearing rooms along with separate public and judicial areas, meeting rooms, custodial facilities and parking.

The combined complex will also provide a police headquarters building featuring high-specification offices, laboratories, a firearms range, vehicle parking, reception, custodial suite and conferencing facilities.

In November it was announced that the corporation had secured all the land needed for the scheme, having snapped up 68-71 Fleet Street, a 20th-century building on the corner of Whitefriars Street.

At the time of purchase, Michael Snyder, chair of the capital buildings committee at the City of London Corporation said: ’This is a complex and ambitious piece of work.

’My committee and I are dedicated to delivering a world-class scheme that meets the specific operational requirements of this project.

‘We are committed to opening up the wider site for redevelopment and delivering a flagship court complex and state of the art City police headquarters fit for the future of our world leading financial and business City.’

According to the competition brief, each of the shortlisted teams received £10,000 to prepare their responses for the job, which comes with an estimated £11 million design contract.

The City of London Corporation is the local authority for the Square Mile and provides a variety of judicial facilities including the Central Criminal Court, the mayor’s court, a county court, magistrates court and the Rolls Building which hosts the capital’s business and property courts.

The corporation also provides the City of London police force, which is also the UK’s lead organisation for tackling economic crime.

Parry has worked on a number of schemes in the City, including the yet-to-be-built 1 Undershaft skyscraper. 

The City of London Corporation and Eric Parry Architects refused to comment.