Striking pictures have been released which show how Gloucester’s HM Prison could look if redevelopment plans are approved.

City and Country plan to convert city centre site’s listed buildings into 204 homes with car parking, landscape gardens and a cafe.

Illustrative view of development from The Quay

The images, released in a planning document submitted to the city council, show the scale of the development, including several different tower blocks and a new road.

Work would take between four to five years to complete and the first 12 months would be spent demolishing unwanted structures within the prison.

Six-storey apartment blocks would then be built on the western edge of the jail, a four-storey building in the centre of the site and three to four-storey buildings along the perimeter.

The cell block, debtors’ prison, governor’s house and gate house would be saved and converted into apartments. There would be some open space.

Artist impression

The footprint of the medieval keep from Gloucester Castle, discovered in archaeological digs, will be retained if the application is given the green light.

City and Country has said affordable housing is unlikely to feature in the plans.

Planning documents suggest a new road would be constructed to connect the development with the River Severn to the west of The Quay and the prison’s gatehouse would be opened as an entrance.

It adds that the “harsh backdrop” of Commercial Road’s streetscape would be replaced by “an area of planting” with seating and trees.

This is described as the “planting strategy”, which the developers hope will “change people’s perception of the place and its history”.