Tooting Fire Station

Tooting Fire Station

A fire station with flats above, built in 1907 by the London County Council Architects' Department Fire Brigade Section. The building was internally remodelled and extended to the rear in the 1980s.

The structure is a rectangular four-storey block constructed in Portland stone ashlar, red brick with brown glazed brick detailing, brown stock brick to the rear elevation, and clay tile roof.

The ground floor contains the fire station accommodation, with residential flats occupying the upper storeys and a stair to the rear at the north end. The interior plan has been much altered since construction.

The exterior displays a lively Arts and Crafts domestic style. The ashlar-faced ground floor comprises five bays: three appliance bays to the north and two semi-circular mullion and transom windows to the south, with a small pedestrian entrance between them. An inscription in gilt letters reads "London County Council Fire Brigade 1907". The seven-bay façade above is virtually symmetrical and enlivened by contrasting materials and varied fenestration. Two-storey canted oriels carried on moulded corbels feature in the central and penultimate bays, while triple, paired, and double sash windows with flat or segmental arches enliven the elevation. The outer pairs of bays are accentuated by paired gables with glazed brick diamond pattern. The third floors of the bays flanking the central oriel are faced with glazed brick corbelled arcaded panels carried on slender pilasters. The sash windows are four-over-four pane with exposed boxes. A steep pitched roof with deep eaves crowns the three central bays, with large slab chimneystacks.

The rear elevation features a projecting canted bay with pitched roof, deep eaves, and red-brick diapering. A similar bay was added in the 1980s to provide a second stair. Former balconies have been enclosed to form corridors, and timber sash windows are retained. Extensions to the rear yard and drill tower are not of special interest.

The interior contains an appliance room with iron stanchions supporting cross girders and a main stair with iron balustrade. The interior retains few features of original interest owing to extensive alteration.

Fire services in London developed principally from the need of insurance providers to limit losses from property damage following the Great Fire of 1666. Initially, each insurer maintained a separate brigade serving only subscribers until an integrated service was founded in 1833, funded by City businesses. In 1866, following an Act of Parliament, the first publicly-funded authority charged with saving lives and protecting buildings from fire was established: the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, initially part of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Early Metropolitan Fire Brigade stations were generally plain brick, with few pre-1880 examples surviving. During the 1880s, under Metropolitan Fire Brigade architect Robert Pearsall, fire stations acquired a true architectural identity, notably expressed in the rich Gothic style characteristic of Victorian municipal buildings such as Bishopsgate. The building boom of the 1890s and 1900s transformed fire station architecture, giving the Brigade some of its most characterful buildings. In 1889 the fire brigade passed to the newly-formed London County Council. From 1896 onwards, new stations were designed by a group of architects led by Owen Fleming and Charles Canning Winmill, both formerly of the LCC Housing Department, who brought highly experimental methods evolved for designing new social housing to the Fire Brigade Division (as the department was known from 1899). They drew on a huge variety of influences to create unique and commanding stations, each built to a bespoke design and plan. This exciting period in fire station design continued until the outbreak of the First World War, although some standardisation of design occurred thereafter.

The first Tooting Fire Station was built in 1868–1869 at 283a Balham High Road.