Southminster former police station and associated coach house

Southminster former police station and associated coach house

This former police station complex was built in 1901 to the designs of County Architect Frank Whitmore. It comprises a police station and attached magistrates' court, superintendent's house, and married constable's house, together with a detached coach house.

The main complex is roughly rectangular in plan. The former magistrates' court and police station are single-storey structures facing south towards Queenborough Road. The former superintendent's house is two storeys tall and roughly square in plan, facing east towards Sheepcotes Lane. The former married constable's house is two storeys tall and roughly T-shaped in plan, also facing east towards Sheepcotes Lane.

All buildings are constructed of red brick laid in English bond with yellow stone dressings. The roofs have red clay-tile coverings and red brick chimneystacks. Each element has a hipped roof. A continuous stone cornice runs over the ground floor, uniting the buildings, with the exception of the married constable's house.

The former magistrates' court features a Dutch gable to its front elevation, bearing a stone plaque carved with the Essex coat of arms of three swords and the date 1901. The front elevation has a replacement door and tripartite overlight, a single window, and a four-light mullion and transom window. The west side has four bays of windows to the lobby and former court room, two smaller windows, and a door to the rear service area. The roof of the former magistrates' court formerly had two lanterns, which were removed in the late twentieth century.

The former police station has a stone parapet carved in relief with the name 'COUNTY POLICE STATION', a single-leaf door with tripartite overlight, and two bays of six-light mullion and transom windows.

The former superintendent's house has Dutch gables to both its south and east elevations, stone quoins to the building's corners and window surrounds, three bays of windows to its south and east elevations, and a half-glazed door with rectangular overlight and bracketed canopy to the centre of its front (east) elevation.

The former married constable's house is comparatively plainer, without stone dressings save for stone keystones to each window, and has a half-glazed door with rectangular overlight to its front (east) elevation. The windows of both residential houses generally comprise a six-pane sash over a single-pane sash.

The detached former coach house and stables stands approximately 8 metres north of the former magistrates' court. It comprises a one-and-a-half storey coach house and single-storey stable, with hipped roofs of red clay tiles and walls of red brick laid in English bond. The front (south) elevation of the coach house has double-leaf timber doors with tripartite overlight and a gabled window above. The stable appears to have been extended in the late twentieth century with the addition of double-leaf timber doors.

The interior of the former magistrates' court retains its original ceiling beneath a late twentieth-century suspended ceiling, and the plan form survives relatively intact. The former police station retains intact cells with their original glazed-tile walls, doors and grills, and the plan form survives well, save for some minor alterations to the layout of the front rooms. The plan forms of the former superintendent's house and married constable's house survive relatively intact, with their original stairs, door surrounds and doors preserved. The former coach house and stables are empty on the interior.