Westminster Fire Station

Fire Station and Flats

Westminster Fire Station was built in 1906 by the Fire Brigade Branch of the London County Council Architects Department. It is a Grade II listed building located at Greycoat Place, Westminster. A late 20th-century extension to the north-east with drill tower was added later.

The station is constructed in red brick with fine rubbed, moulded and gauged brick detailing, Portland stone ground floor and dressings, and yellow stock brick to the rear elevation. The building has an almost parallelogram footprint with an acute return to the west. It comprises four storeys plus basement and attic, with the ground and first floors occupied by the fire station and flats above. A pedestrian entrance and stair are located at the front between the two easternmost appliance bays.

The exterior is designed in Free English Baroque style with an asymmetrical façade. From west to east, the façade comprises four and three equal bays flanking a broader, off-centre stone-banded bay which is slightly set forward and aligns with the centre bay of the symmetrical five-bay attic storey. The ground floor features banded rustication, continuing around the west return. There are three appliance bays beneath voussoired and keyed lintels, with an off-centre pedestrian entrance to the upper floors. The bays above are articulated by a giant order of Ionic pilasters with dosserets, terminated by broad stone-banded angle pilasters. That to the west return has a small first-floor window. Windows throughout are tripartite, coupled or single eight-over-eight timber sashes. First-floor windows are set in recessed segmental arches, except that to the west bay and a keyed oculus two bays along. The broader off-centre bay contains six-over-six pane stair windows at mezzanine level and sub-cornice, with a keyed oculus to the attic. A brick cornice sits over the third floor and a stone coped parapet tops the attic storey. The irregular roof plan comprises a hipped central part and pitched roofs to the west end, with tall stacks displaying dentilled cornices.

The west return features a two-storey canted projection with a broad voussoired arched window and two narrow sash windows above. Above this, the flank has one window and a tall stack to the left, surmounted by a half gable in the form of a pediment with modillion cornice. The chimney stack has a drip mould in the form of a round pediment. The elevation then cants round to meet the rear. The rear elevation has continuous railed balconies, with windows comprising segmental-headed triple casements or paired six-over-nine pane sashes.

The modern brick drill tower and extension to the north-east are not of special interest.

Interior

The appliance room ceiling is carried on steel girders supported on stanchions, with glazed brick walls. The original watch room to the rear features glazed brick walls and a canted front with square timber panelling. Glazed brick facing lines the stair well and pole houses. The upper floors are largely altered and therefore of lesser interest, though they were partly inspected.

History

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 of the previous year, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade was established as the first publicly-funded authority charged with saving lives and protecting buildings from fire. It was initially part of the Metropolitan Board of Works. Early Metropolitan Fire Brigade stations were generally plain brick, and few pre-1880 examples survive. During the 1880s, under the Metropolitan Fire Brigade architect Robert Pearsall, fire stations acquired a true architectural identity, most notably in the rich Gothic style typical of Victorian municipal buildings such as Bishopsgate. The building boom of the 1890s and 1900s transformed fire station architecture and gave the Brigade some of its most characterful buildings. In 1889, the fire brigade passed to the newly-formed London County Council. From 1896, 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 called 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 to the outbreak of the First World War, although there was some standardisation of design in the period.

Westminster Fire Station replaced an earlier Metropolitan Fire Brigade building of circa 1876 in Francis Street, which was demolished.