340, Lewisham High Street

779/0/10125 LEWISHAM HIGH STREET 07-MAY-02 340

II

Fire station , also incorporating tied housing for firemen and stabling for horses, later converted to part residential, part offices and ground floor front part adapted as nursery school. Built in 1898 for LCC in Queen Anne/ Arts and Crafts style. EXTERIOR: Built of red brick with yellow brick bands and stone dressings, hipped tiled roof with deep wooden modillion cornice and tall brick chimneystacks. Comprises two linked buildings and 90 foot practice tower. Front range to Lewisham High Street is of four storeys: four bays. Hipped tiled roof with central and end brick stacks with blank round-headed arched panels and deep modillion cornice. Two upper floors have paired 12-pane sashes, the first floor has a tripartite arrangement of central 16-pane sashes flanked by four-pane sashes and the ground floor has stone pilasters, four round-headed arches with keystones and plinth. The two outer arches have original small pane windows. The two inner ones originally had entrances for fire engines but these were converted into windows in the later C20, identical to the outer arches. Left side elevation has two narrow sashes to the two top floors and four sashes to the first floor. Conical practice tower to rear with round-headed lancet windows and twelve windows divided by stone columns to top storey below conical tiled roof which has a metal finial and decorative weathervane. Rear range, tied housing for firemen, is linked to front by cast iron walkways. It is also of four storeys but has a flat roof with a series of brick chimneystacks and cast iron balustrading. The two bays to the left project. The recessed bays to the right have cast iron balconies on three floors HISTORY: Among the three last fire stations in the area to incorporate tied housing for firemen and their families as well as provision for stabling of horses.

["Buildings of England. London 2: South" p417.]