First-look images of plans to build a seven-storey tower on the site of the former Highgate Magistrates’ Court have been unveiled.

Proposals to knock down the ex-court building and the former Highgate police station, in Bishops Road, and replace it with 89 homes, went on public display on Friday.

Developer Bellway Homes’ plans are for a “landmark” tower of flats fronting Archway Road, which will drop in height along Bishops Road and Church Road.

About 30 per cent of housing will be affordable and the development will contain a mix of one, two and three-bedroom flats.

Reaction from residents who looked at plans on display at All Saints’ Church, in Talbot Road, was mixed.

Retired Helen Cockroft, 61, of Talbot Road, said it would be a “great improvement” on the boarded-up magistrates’ court, which has been closed since December 2012.

Robert Sinfield, owner of Le Chocolatier chocolate shop, in Highgate High Street, Highgate Village, had concerns over insufficient parking spaces, but he expressed an interest in buying one of the flats.

Planning director for Bellway Homes, James McConnell, said: “It is a unique location and the design has been developed to provide a high-quality development.”