Demolition starts on Sheffield's 'Yorkshire Ripper' police station

Demolition work has begun on a disused Sheffield police station famous for its links to the Yorkshire Ripper and the Hillsborough disaster.
Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew RoeDemolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe
Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe

The Hammerton Road site in Sheffield, which has been closed since 2014, is being knocked down for safety reasons.

It is the station where serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, known as the Yorkshire Ripper, was taken after being caught in 1981.

Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew RoeDemolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe
Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe
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Eight years later, the station was a focus for the much-criticised operation to help distraught families following the Hillsborough disaster at Sheffield Wednesday's nearby stadium.

The building was tucked away in a back street in the Hillsborough district.

Chief Superintendent David Hartley, commander for Sheffield, said: “Hammerton Road was a fantastic servant to the force but the ageing building had become outdated, inefficient to run and no longer fit for purpose when it closed nearly two years ago.

"It needs to be demolished for safety reasons.

Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew RoeDemolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe
Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe

"Discussions continue to take place about the future use of the Hammerton Road site but key to this process is the forthcoming review of the force’s operating model.

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“Our North West local policing team continue to work extremely hard from Hayes House, less than two miles from the Hammerton Road site. The team have an informative and responsive presence on social media and spend the majority of their time in local neighbourhoods thanks to the force’s increasing use of mobile technology.”

Sutcliffe was arrested in January 1981 when officers spotted stolen number plates on his car in the Broomhill area of Sheffield.

He was taken to Hammerton Road police station, where he managed to hide a knife in a toilet cistern before he was transferred to West Yorkshire.

Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew RoeDemolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe
Demolition has started on the old police station on Hammerton Road. Picture: Andrew Roe

After the tragedy at Hillsborough stadium in April 1989, Hammerton Road became the centre for the police operation to try to collate missing persons reports.

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Then chief inspector Norman Bettison, who later became the chief constable of the Merseyside and West Yorkshire forces, was based at the station - although he originally went to the match as a spectator.

Concerned families were accommodated at a boys' club round the corner from the station, where the police operation was led by then inspector Bernard Hogan-Howe - now the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.