Lambeth Fire Station (formerly also the London Fire Brigade Headquarters) and ventilation obelisk

This fire station, which also served as the Brigade Headquarters of the London Fire Brigade, was built between 1936 and 1937 by the London County Council at a cost of approximately £300,000. The building was designed by EP Wheeler FRIBA, Architect to the LCC, assisted by G Weald FRIBA and possibly Frederick Hiorns. Sculpture was contributed by Gilbert Bayes, Stanley Nicholson Babb and FP Morton. The steel framework was supplied by Dawnays Ltd, foundations by Gee, Walker and Slater, the building superstructure by Higgs and Hill, and the steel-framed windows by Crittall.

Materials and Construction

The building has a steel frame, probably concrete-encased, clad in light brown-grey bricks laid in English bond. The ground floor, central part of the first floor, cornice to the top floor and top of the central tower are faced in Portland stone with granite courses to the base. Reinforced concrete balconies feature at the rear.

Plan

The building is a long, rectangular nine-storey block aligned north-south along the river frontage. It comprises a basement with heating chamber and store rooms, ground floor fire station with staff facilities at first floor, former offices at second floor, former administration facilities at third floor, and former living quarters on the fourth to eighth floors. The appliance room is placed centrally on the ground floor, with the main entrance hall and watch room to the south and a smaller entrance hall to the north. Two stairs at the north and south ends are found to the rear. Each floor is bisected by a long axial corridor. A single and part-two storey rear wing, originally housing the LFB museum, canteens and a bandstand to the east, was demolished in the 1980s to make way for a large, extant extension housing the former command centre.

To the rear of the main building is the yard, with the drill tower (separately listed) in the north-east corner of the site. The yard is accessed from Lambeth High Street.

Exterior

The building displays a streamlined Moderne style, expressed through severe geometry, stepped-back upper storeys, a flat roof, cill-courses and a strong horizontal emphasis to the elevations. The symmetrical principal front facing Albert Embankment has nine storeys, with the top two storeys stepped back, apart from the central five bays of the eighth storey which thus form a centrepiece to the façade. There are 25 bays to this principal front, plus set-back blind end bays forming returns to the side elevations. Original Crittall casement windows with horizontal glazing remain, with those at each end narrower and those to the central five bays at the first floor and the central bay above being triple casements with margin lights.

The ground floor has seven central appliance bays with deep, stepped-back splayed reveals and an upper transom with horizontal fluting (these details are repeated in the lower pedestrian entrances to either side). Appliance bays have folding wooden doors (some replicated) of coffered panels with decorative metal grilles to the upper parts; transom lights also have decorative metal grilles. To each side of the appliance bays are four small square windows with decorative metal grilles, arranged two to either side of a pedestrian entrance. Entrances have panelled double doors with metal grilles; above each of them is a stone relief of firemen in action by Stanley Nicholson Babb. The Portland stone balcony to the first floor, continuing around the side elevations, bears the name of building 'LONDON COUNTY COUNCIL LONDON FIRE BRIGADE HEADQUARTERS', obscured by scaffolding in 2023. Above the first floor of the central five bays is a stone cornice with horizontal fluting, curved at the ends and in the centre around two elaborate metal lamp standards. From the first to the third floors are central stone reliefs by Gilbert Bayes with gold mosaic backgrounds. Flanking the first floor are two galleys, above the first floor are two mermen with water hoses, above the second floor Phoebus in his chariot with sun's rays behind, and on the third floor a griffin. There is horizontal rustication to the eighth-floor centrepiece, which has an inset panel of wheat ears, and to the ninth floor. The central set-back tower has side pavilions with projecting reinforced concrete cornices above a frieze with square and dot pattern, iron railings and flagstaff above, and a large carved LCC coat of arms crest in stone by FP Morton.

The return elevations of six bays have narrower end windows. Here the top three storeys are set back apart from the two end bays to the south-east rear, which form a corner tower.

The rear elevation has corresponding folding appliance doors with decorative grilles at the ground floor, providing access to the drill yard. There are cantilevered balconies on all floors. The three lowest floors are deeper, raked in terrace-like form, with cast iron balustrading, although some inner railings are removed. From the fourth to the eighth floor, the ends project, with two floors of the southern projection glazed-in. A built-in canted control kiosk is at the first floor north end, accessed from the yard by an external stair, with interior control panels remaining. The lower balconies were designed to be used as display platforms for up to 800 people to watch weekly public drill displays. The building diminishes in depth above the third storey level.

The 1980s rear extension (former Command Centre) projects deeply into the southern end of the drill yard, supported on concrete piers. Of two storeys, the first floor oversails, with an additional plant roof extension to the frontage. It has a blocky appearance, clad in brown brick to the ground floors, partly glazed at the north. It appears to be clad with GRP to the first floor with small rectangular windows to the north, east and south. The roof is flat. A brown brick external plant tower is attached to the south.

Interior

The main south entrance hall has marble cladding and a geometrical frieze. The doors have elaborate geometrical patterned grilles. On the right-hand rear (east) side, set in an alcove, is a memorial by Gilbert Bayes presented to the LFB by Lloyds underwriters and dedicated 'to the memory of the officers and men of the London Fire Brigade who throughout the years lay down their lives whilst doing their duty'. The central marble relief depicts a contemporary fire-fighting scene, set within a bronze frame with opening panels to either side bearing the names of 62 men. The top bears the motto "FINIS CORONAT OPUS", surmounted by a statuary group with a steam fire engine drawn by galloping horses. Set in the walls to either side are bronze grilles depicting billhooks and historic fire-fighting equipment, below which are bas-relief panels of modern appliances. In front of the memorial is a circular floor mosaic depicting the Great Fire of London. On the left rear wall is an elaborate tablet commemorating the establishment of the London Fire Brigade in 1865. This has a marble relief by Gilbert Bayes dated 1938 depicting an 18th century fire fighting scene, set in a bronze frame with relief figures to either side and the inscription 'OMNIUM RERUM PRINCIPIA PARVA SUNT' at the top. In 1956, a memorial to the men and women of the Fire Services of the London Civil Defence Region was unveiled on the west side of the hall, depicting St Paul's Cathedral set amid smoke and flames, a brass inscription and veneer panels inscribed with 414 names. Beneath is a circular sgraffito floor panel depicting the areas of the London Civil Defence Region Fire Services. A memorial tablet against central pier to LCC staff who died in the two World Wars has a gilded key pattern. A bronze plaque marks the opening of the building by King George VI.

The hall has been extended into the former watch room, which, in turn, leads to the appliance room where three of the firemens' poles remain and a concrete stair with metal balustrade, located at the rear, leads to the first floor.

The smaller north entrance hall has similar doors and frieze to the main entrance but the marble cladding is 1980s. There are open-well, moderne style stairs with bronze balustrades and terrazzo floor covering to the landings and up to the dado rail, located to the north and south ends at the rear. The first-floor mess room with beamed coffered ceiling and some original timber fittings, and the billiard room has wooden panelling, bench seating and score board. Some original lockers remain in the dormitories. The secured timber doors to the poles remain on the south side of the corridor. The second floor has a rear conference room faced in polished wood veneer with a fluted frieze; the sliding partitions have gone. The upper residential floors have largely been stripped of domestic fittings and opened out into large rooms, although many original doors, one fire surround, one fireplace, some skirting boards, dado rails, architraves and other joinery survive. Other features include original wood-veneer post boxes. The basement has a generator and other equipment said to date from the Second World War when the basement was used as an underground control room.

Ventilation and Escape Tower

The ventilation and escape tower in the form of an obelisk is located at approximately the centre of the north boundary of site, against the south wall of the International Maritime Organisation building. Designed and built in 1939, it was the secondary means of escape from the underground control room in addition to having air intake ducts within for gas-proof ventilation. This tapering, square-section structure is constructed of reinforced concrete and is about 11.5 metres high, with louvered openings at 10 metres height and a door at the ground floor on its east elevation.