Former Blackburn Fire Station including the drill yard wall

Former Blackburn Fire Station including the drill yard wall

This former fire station was built between 1915 and 1921 to designs by Walter Stirrup of Blackburn and Manchester. The building demonstrates Greek Revival style with Beaux Arts and Baroque influences.

Materials and Construction

The building is constructed of pressed red brick with sandstone dressings and has slate roof coverings. The original timber sash windows have largely been replaced by uPVC windows throughout.

Plan and Setting

The former fire station is a substantial complex with a U-shaped plan. It comprises a main block facing Byrom Street to the east, with ancillary ranges and a drill tower at the rear. A large former drill yard lies to the west, surrounded on three sides by terraced housing originally built to accommodate the firefighters and their families. The site is bounded by Byrom Street to the east, Sumner Street to the south, the drill yard and former firemen's houses to the west, and neighbouring buildings to the north.

External Description

The building is predominantly two storeys with single-storey ranges at the rear and a mixture of hipped, pitched and flat roofs. Windows throughout feature sandstone sills and flat-arched brick lintels, though nearly all have replacement uPVC glazing. Original cast-iron rainwater goods survive, including hoppers bearing the date '1915' in relief stylised numerals. Brick chimneystacks with sandstone dentilled cornices are present.

Principal East Elevation

The front elevation facing Byrom Street consists of a tall central block incorporating a six-bay engine house at ground floor level, executed in sandstone. Large engaged columns with Tuscan capitals separate the bays, and each square-headed opening now has late 20th-century motorised doors. Above these openings, supported by the columns, runs a deep band between floor levels featuring decorative carved relief wreathed mouldings. These include framed blind panels, pendant mouldings in the style of Roman fasces (bundles of rods) topped by lion heads, and a Greek-key frieze. A large hanging sign originally affixed to the centre of this band has been removed and relocated to the forecourt of the new station building opposite on Byrom Street.

The first floor has six tall windows with carved sandstone surrounds incorporating roundel decoration to the upper corners. At the top of this elevation is a deep entablature with further roundel reliefs and paired dentils to the cornice, surmounted by a prominent parapet with alternate cross-shaped pierced panels. The hipped roof is concealed from view by the parapet but incorporates two large chimneystacks at each end.

Flanking the central block are two lower, two-storey, square pavilions with hipped roofs incorporating central ridge stacks. Each pavilion has narrow, pedimented entrance bays in sandstone flanked by wider outer bays. These pavilions were originally houses for the two first officers and remained in residential use until 1974 when the station changed from borough to county control, at which point they were converted into office, recreational and dormitory space.

Both pavilions project forward slightly and are identically styled with clasping sandstone pilasters to the corners and ground-floor windows set within elaborate full-height sandstone surrounds. The first floor is of sandstone and features two narrow windows to the upper floor of the pedimented entrance bay and three larger windows to each flanking side, separated by relief foliate pendant mouldings. At the top of each pavilion elevation is a Greek-key frieze and a low parapet. The entrance doors of both pavilions have been replaced. The left pavilion also has an additional doorway tucked into the projecting north side adjacent to the central block, which originally formed the main entrance for the station.

The south return of the left pavilion facing Sumner Street is similarly treated to the front elevation, with a pedimented central bay flanked by small ground-floor windows and a sandstone first floor featuring the same framed relief panels as the central block. The north return of the right pavilion is plainer and faces neighbouring buildings, being largely hidden from view by a high wall. The remaining buildings on this side consist of the rear sections of workshops that face into the drill yard. A two-storey block containing a stone stair accessing the first-floor concert room has a visible stair window on this north side and also contains the building's only two surviving sash windows.

South Elevation

This 11-bay elevation facing Sumner Street incorporates the former stables and stables office. The four bays to the far left were converted around 1942 into a dormitory, locker room and toilets as the brigade expanded; they are now used as offices and a mechanic's workshop.

The westernmost bay, which housed stables, harness room and office, is of two storeys with a hipped roof and ridge stack. The upper floor was originally a hay loft. This block has a deep plan with a longer west side elevation facing an entranceway into the drill yard, featuring a mixture of original and later door and window openings. The three adjoining bays on Sumner Street are single storey and also have a hipped roof; these were originally the stable block. This former stable has three windows and a central full dormer with a raised head. Both blocks have overhanging dentilled eaves.

To the right of the former stables is a three-bay, flat-roofed, single-storey former ambulance house with three large square-headed openings (now infilled as of 2019). These openings are separated by large sandstone columns in the same style as those to the front elevation, supporting a deep entablature with paired dentils to the cornice. The ambulance house ceased its original use in 1941 and the openings were partially bricked up in the mid-1960s with the upper sections converted into windows (now covered by boarding).

A high yard wall to the right of the ambulance house is surmounted by cast-iron railings and incorporates a carved doorcase. The three bays to the far right of the elevation form the south return of the second officer's house and are as previously described.

Drill Yard Elevations

The rear elevation of the main block and the rear ancillary buildings all face onto the eastern end of the drill yard. At the rear of the engine house is a large glass verandah or canopy known as 'the Wash' that runs the full length of the engine house and has timber king-post trusses. The glass is now largely covered by corrugated sheeting. The wash is supported on the west side by slender cast-iron columns and was originally a covered area where the engines were washed down. An early 21st-century brick and breezeblock wall has been inserted into the wash to separate the canopied space into two sections. An early 21st-century painted-breezeblock garage has been constructed in front of the wash's southern section, which also abuts part of the northern wall of the former ambulance house. A large window in the ambulance house's west wall has been converted into a vehicular entrance to create access to the interior.

The buildings on the southern side of the drill yard are arranged around a small secondary yard area with original tethering rings for the station's horses affixed to the walls. The former stable block has a full dormer in the same style as that facing Sumner Street, and openings with modern roller shutters. The adjacent stable office block is part two-storey and part single-storey at the rear and has windows and doorways of varying size, including a window partly converted into a doorway and an altered opening in the north end wall. Attached to the east side is a single-storey projection built during the Second World War as an anti-gas decontamination unit.

Along the northern side of the drill yard is a range of stores and workshops, with a small north-east yard behind. The largest block, which was originally the main workshop, has a gable end facing onto the drill yard with three large vehicular openings and sandstone banding and copings (some missing) to the gable. The central opening was originally a large multipaned window with an integral central doorway, but this has been removed and a modern roller shutter installed.

To the west of the workshop is a drill tower that rises above the fire station and acts as a local landmark. It is a substantial six-stage structure approximately 80 feet high that tapers as it rises and was used for hose drying and fire drills. The tower incorporates a sandstone plinth and brick quoining, and has a Baroque top stage. On the tower's south yard-facing elevation is a ground-floor doorway with a sandstone doorcase incorporating roundel decoration. The three stages above each have a large loading door-style opening with carved sandstone architraves with prominent keystones and aprons. Above the fourth stage is a sandstone band that becomes a cornice at each corner, and the fifth stage has a keyed oculus to all four sides. The top stage is treated like a belvedere with openings supported by classical columns, carved scrolled corners and semi-circular balconies, and is surmounted by a flagpole.

The drill yard is surrounded on three sides by a high brick wall with rounded copings, which is stepped in sections and has brick gate piers with sandstone banding. The yard has been subdivided into two sections (western and eastern) by modern metal palisade fencing. The larger western section retains its original tiled surface, whilst the eastern section immediately adjacent to the station buildings has been tarmaced over.

Interior

The engine house retains its original buff-coloured tile floor and a doorway in the north wall with an elaborate architrave and an original five-panel door that leads into a room off. An identically styled adjacent doorway through to the first officer's house has been removed and blocked up. A large window in the engine house's southern wall with similarly detailed elaborate architrave, which lit the former watch room, has also been removed and blocked up. Early 21st-century brick dividing walls have been inserted to separate some of the bays into separate car modification and repair units, the southernmost one of which has a modern inserted mezzanine office structure. Motorised late 20th-century rear doors and a traffic light control system survive but have been boarded over internally.

The rest of the interior of the principal front block, including the former houses of the first officers, was not available for inspection, but the interiors are understood to contain five-panel doors, moulded cornicing and door architraves, picture rails, some cast-iron radiators, chimneybreasts, at least one timber fire surround with a tiled interior, built-in cupboards, glazed tiling to walls (now largely painted over), and stairs with stick balusters and newel posts with chamfered corners in the two former houses.

The space above the engine house consists of a concert room and recreation room and is accessed via a stone stair with a timber handrail and painted cast-iron splat balusters. A stained-glass stair window that originally lit the stair has been removed to the modern fire station building opposite on Byrom Street. The concert room has a barrel-vaulted ceiling with plasterwork decoration, panelled walls that incorporate a fireplace at the southern end with a tiled interior and copper hood and hearth fender, fixed-bench seating to three walls, and pendant lights. The neighbouring recreation room is plainer but has moulded cornicing and a picture rail. A fire surround has been removed, but the chimneybreast survives. A former kitchen on the same floor was converted into toilets and a ladies powder room in the 1970s.

Two brass sliding poles originally led down from the first floor into the engine house, including one from the concert room. The poles were removed in 2012 to the new station opposite on Byrom Street and Burnley Fire Station, but their panelled pole-drop doors and cabinets both survive. That to the concert room is set to the south-west corner and has a curved door. Further poles were also originally located within the first officers' houses and led down from the bedroom to the ground floor adjacent to the engine house, although both have now been removed, probably in the 1970s.

On the south side of the complex the ambulance house is now a mechanic's workshop and retains its original flooring, timber-boarded ceiling (some sections of boarding are missing) and bay divisions, but two of the rear doors onto the wash and the drill yard have been removed. One set of original doors survives at the eastern end but the reverse side facing into the wash has been blocked up. A stone stair leads down to a series of basement rooms underneath the ambulance house, which were used as the station control room during the Second World War and a drill training area in the late 20th century. An air filtration plant and system installed during the Second World War also survives.

The stables, stables office and harness room were converted around 1942 into a dormitory, a locker room and toilets, and a dining room and kitchen in the hayloft as the brigade expanded. They are now in use as a security office, car mechanic's workshop, and a flooring business. The interiors were not inspected, but the stable office block is understood to have a stair with stick balusters in similar style to those in the first officers' houses, and the former hay loft has timber A-frame roof trusses.

The interiors of the northern stores were not inspected, but it is understood that a drying room retains rails and shelving, and a basement contains boiler and substation rooms. The interior of the main workshop was inspected and retains its original steel trusses with overhead travelling crane, two mechanics pits with timber covers for working on the appliances, and an original built-in cupboard. Three doorways that originally led through to the neighbouring stores and a small north-east yard have been blocked up. The interior of the tower was not inspected, but it is understood that it contains a timber stair with open treads that accesses all the floor landings, and at the ground-floor rear is a hose drying room with rails and pegs affixed to the walls, with a further hose room and storage room in a single-storey annexe at the rear (north side).