The Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre is a specialist training centre for the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

Gravesend Gravesend is a town in northwest Kent, England, situated 21 miles (35 km) east-southeast of Charing Cross (central London) on the Bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames and opposite Tilbury in Essex. Located in the diocese of Ro ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It provides both Public Disorder and Specialist Firearms training to officers drawn from the MPS,

British Transport Police , nativename = , abbreviation = BTP , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = British Transport Police Logo.svg , logocaption = Logo of the British Transport Police , badge = , badgecaption = , f ...

and

City of London Police The City of London Police is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the City of London, including the Middle and Inner Temples. The force responsible for law enforcement within the remainder of the London region, ou ...

. The centre was purpose-built for the Metropolitan Police and opened in 2003.

The site

The site covers 9,250 square metres and was rebuilt by Equion.It was a former military firing range and also the National Civilian Seacraft training centre before the centre relocated to the local college campus. It features mock roads, shops, a pub, a bank, a nightclub, a football stadium, train and underground stations with full-size carriages and a full-size section of an aircraft. There are also classrooms and lecture theatres, accommodation for more than 300 people, stables for 10 police horses and an abseil tower.

In media

The site was photographed by James Rawlings in 2014 when he was given access to the site. It took several months of negotiations with authorities for Rawlings to get permission to photograph the site and restrictions included not showing the faces of officers who took part in training. The site has also appeared on Television in the former police procedural drama "The Bill".

References

{{Metropolitan Police Gravesham Gravesend, Kent Metropolitan Police training establishments 2003 establishments in the United Kingdom Port of London Buildings and structures in Kent