Camel’s Head Gate – MOD Plymouth Investment

Devonport, the most extensive naval base in Western Europe, has supported the Royal Navy since 1691. This expansive facility spans over 650 acres and boasts 15 dry docks, four miles of waterfront, 25 tidal berths, and five basins. It is pivotal in employing 2,500 service personnel and civilians, bolstering approximately 400 local businesses, and contributing around ten per cent of Plymouth’s revenue.

Devonport Royal Dockyard has been selected to provide future deep maintenance support to the Royal Navy’s newest submarine platforms and the current workload supporting existing submarine classes. This will see an investment in infrastructure of approximately £2bn over the next 10 years.

Part of this investment was overhauling the Camels Head Gate entrance to the site, which increased security and improved access for cars, pedestrians, and cyclists.

A Royal Navy spokesperson said, “Camels Head Gate has not been upgraded for some years, and this upgrade will enhance the security and safety of personnel and visitors to the Naval Base.”

Bowmer + Kirkland approached the Bike Storage Company and was commissioned to design, manufacture, and install bespoke bike storage and a bus shelter for the Ministry of Defence site. This early concept sketch shows the new multistorey car park plan, bike parking provisions and a bus stop at the base's entrance.

The brief was for 60 cycle spaces, but with limited ground space for the installation, we knew our starting point would be to deploy our two-tier rack system.. The space allowed four back-to-back 16-space (8-up, 8-down) two-tier racks, providing 64 cycle parking spots.

We then turned our attention to the shelter itself. The challenge was to focus on security and cycle protection while maintaining the modern look of the new facilities on site. The cycle shelters were housed within the secure boundaries of the base and covered by numerous existing CCTV cameras, so we started designing a bespoke, toughened, glass-panelled shelter.

Using glass allowed for a line of site visibility for CCTV and personnel, a deterrent for any would-be bike thieves, but also allowed all the ambient light in the area to reach the internals of the shelter, negating the need for extra internal lighting and turn-keeping clean lines across the design.

We started by looking at our hugely popular Binfield Cycle Shelter – a cantilevered canopy that can be upgraded to 8mm toughened glass. To increase protection from the elements, we levelled out the roof and extended the glass panelling to the rear and sides of the shelter.

The result was a beautiful, modern shelter with excellent security to withstand and protect bikes from the coastal elements.

We then mirrored this design for the requested bus shelter, stripping out the bike racks but designing a built-in noticeboard and bench. A nice finishing touch was powder-coating the galvanised steel frame in the same colour as the buses that service the stop. We also added a translucent vinyl design of dots to the shelter's roof panels to reduce direct sunlight's impact on waiting passengers.

The result was a fantastic achievement and tremendous success. It provided the MOD naval base with accessible facilities that suited the site and its ongoing development. Our design team applied their expertise to develop a truly bespoke service that maximised the use of space on the ground and delivered modern solutions for a modern organisation.