Police Station

The building is a police station constructed between 1869 and 1870 by Thomas Charles Sorby, who was the Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police. It is made of stock bricks with Portland and Tilbury stone dressings on the front elevation. The design features projecting eaves on the roof, although the material is obscured, and there are prominent brick stacks on the bearing walls. The building is designed in the Italianate style and consists of four storeys with a basement, topped by a one-storey hipped roof made of Welsh slate that projects forward along the right side of the front facade.

The police station has a six-window range and is asymmetrical with double-fronted irregular end bays that break forward, along with a four-window range centerpiece set in a recess. Steps lead up to a slightly off-centre single-bay porch entrance, which has stone dressings and a bracketed cornice topped with elaborate stone sculpture featuring heraldic supporters, possibly added at a later date. The windows are 6/6 sashes with brick and stone surrounds, becoming shorter as they ascend the building. The ornamentation is done in a loose, almost brutal style, with stone and brick sill bands on the upper floors and a lavish brick cornice beneath the eaves. This police station was built to replace an earlier station from 1842, part of which seems to still be attached to the Magistrates Court.