Former City Of London Police Headquarters

Former City of London Police Headquarters

A police headquarters built between 1926 and 1930 in replica neo-Georgian style by Sydney Perks, the City of London Corporation's Chief Architect. The building is now part of an early 21st-century office development which is not of special interest.

The former police headquarters was constructed in three brick ranges around a truncated L-shaped courtyard, with a Portland stone entrance block facing Old Jewry. It is now adjoined by a 21st-century office development covering the site of former buildings north of the police headquarters between Old Jewry and Ironmonger Lane, fronting onto Gresham Street.

The 1920s brick courtyard ranges are four storeys plus basement, with a modern attic storey featuring flat-roofed dormers on the west range and western end of the north range. The north elevation comprises seven bays with two left-hand bays set back. The westernmost bay contains a mid-18th-century ornate wooden doorcase with fluted Doric columns and segmental pediment. The west elevation, opposite the courtyard entrance, is of three bays on the ground floor and four on the upper storeys. The south elevation is of five bays and displays an identical mid-18th-century doorcase set centrally, plus a further door in the eastern corner with an arched hood, four-pane side-lights and a carriage lamp above. The red brickwork is laid in English bond. All windows are 12-pane sashes with segmental brick arches and prominent Portland stone sills. Basement windows directly below the ground floor sash windows have ironwork grills. A six-storey Portland stone entrance block to the east, with a passageway to the courtyard, forms the final bay of the neoclassical façade to Nos. 27-33 Old Jewry. In the courtyard stands an ironwork ornamental arch topped by a lantern surmounted by the City of London's heraldic griffin. None of the street elevations are of special interest; all date to the 2008-9 development except for the neoclassical frontage of the previous No. 54 Gresham Street and the police headquarters entrance block.

The principal architectural interest lies in an early-18th-century staircase and panelling relocated during the 1920s rebuilding to an entrance hall created in the north-west corner. The staircase was the subject of a special preservation order, an unusual conservation gesture for the time. The staircase is of wood, possibly mahogany, with three flights. The balusters comprise spiral spindles and colonnettes; corner balusters are treated as fluted columns with acanthus capitals. The handrail is moulded and wreathed at the bottom with a curtail step. Decorative brackets flank the sides of the treads. Fielded panelling topped by a cornice lines the ground floor hall, landings to upper floors, walls lining the staircase and the underside of the stairs. The staircase is more or less complete; the panelling and cornice have been carefully mended and partly rebuilt to the original design. Beyond the stairs and panelled landings, the western block is the only part of the former police station to retain fittings of interest. The first floor room features 1920s wooden panelling, fireplaces and an ornate plaster ceiling with moulded cornice and medallions in the four corners. The modern office space comprising the remainder of the development is not of special interest.

Following the creation of the City of London Police in 1839, which replaced the archaic system of the City's Day Police and Nightly Watch and was independent of the Metropolitan Police, a residence for the Commissioner of the new force, Daniel Whittle Harvey, was purchased at 26 Old Jewry in 1841. Harvey was not consulted on the purchase, which led to a protracted dispute over the building's condition with the Police Committee. The first documents relating to 26 Old Jewry date from 1769 and concern a mortgage taken out by Lord Waltham for a freehold dwelling house with warehouses, although the original merchant's house is reputed to date from 1725. By 1830 the building was in use as a counting house and silk warehouse. After its purchase by the City of London Police for £6,500, the building underwent a number of refurbishments including work in 1861, until it was completely rebuilt by Sydney Perks in neo-Georgian style and extended back to a rear entrance on Ironmonger Lane between 1926 and 1930. This work took place before statutory listing was introduced and therefore the retention of historic features by preservation order was an unusual conservation gesture. The building ceased to be the Commissioner's official residence in 1863 and became the administrative headquarters of the City of London Police until it was vacated in 2001 and the site developed for offices. The other buildings incorporated into the office development, Nos. 56-66 Gresham Street, were rebuilt in 1949 following bomb damage during the Second World War. All had a variety of commercial uses.