Hendon Fire Station

Hendon Fire Station

Fire station built in 1911 by architect Herbert Welch for the Urban Council of Hendon. Constructed in red brick laid in English Bond with Portland Stone dressings, featuring slate hipped roofs and tall red brick chimneys. The building is three storeys high, designed in a free Arts and Crafts style with Renaissance influence. It has an L-shaped plan and late 20th-century replacement windows in the original openings.

Exterior

The street frontage presents four bays with symmetrical composition above ground floor level. The ground floor is faced in stone, whilst the upper floors are mainly brick except for the oriels. Three segmental-headed engine door openings are aligned to the right of the ground floor, with a pair of narrow windows in the left-hand bay. A narrow plat band with adjoining keystones runs over the engine openings. Above these, the outer bays feature projecting two-storey canted oriels carried on small consoles, with mullioned windows. The inner two bays have 6-light mullioned windows to each floor. A stone cartouche at the centre displays a relief of the lamb and flag. The parapet above the cornice is balustraded, with a tall chimneystack at the centre.

The south elevation features a nearly central red brick tower, slightly advanced, rising with paired louvres to each face, shallow pilasters and a crenellated top. The cornice and balustrade continue across this elevation, flanked by a pair of tall panelled chimneys. Upper windows are six-light throughout, except the billiard room which has nine-light windows; all have been replaced. The ground floor, like the facade, is faced in stone with narrow triple windows set beneath scored voussoirs and ventilation grilles above. A door is positioned to the right of centre.

The rear elevation comprises a three-storey return for two bays with stone cornice. Here, the ground floor is red brick rather than stone, with three doors. The billiard room at first floor has nine-light windows as on the south elevation. To the left extends the "washing yard", originally covered by a sloping roof partly glazed, which links the south wing to a red brick wall with glazed brick dado enclosing the yard to the north. The main wing has a short return to the far left with stone cornice and a single-bay two-storey projecting room. At the centre, first and second storey balconies, formerly open, are now enclosed by late 20th-century windows. A free-standing late 20th-century practice tower stands in the yard and is not of special interest.

Interior

The plan form remains largely unaltered except for rearrangement of partitions in the accommodation wing to the north. Notable features include full-height green glazed bricks lining the engine room and the ground floor of the stairwell. An original open-well staircase rises to the tower with iron balusters, which have been heightened with an extended metal grille. The billiard room, an important feature of fire stations of this period, retains a heavy cornice befitting the room's grandeur but has lost its original fireplace. A small amount of original joinery survives, including a cupboard in the first floor mess, formerly a dormitory. A two-storey sliding pole remains. The formerly open balcony linking the accommodation wing at first and second floor is now enclosed.

History

A fire brigade was formed in Hendon in 1855 and refounded as a volunteer brigade in 1866, with subsidiary stations at Mill Hill and Childs Hill. In 1899, Hendon Urban District Council took over the brigade, opening sub-stations at Burnt Oak, West Hendon and Golders Green the following year. The fire engine had previously been kept in a building opposite St. Mary's Church. In 1911, Hendon Urban District Council announced a competition for a new fire station, which was won by Herbert Welch, the architect responsible for much of the nearby Golders Green centre, an important suburban Edwardian development. Welch later became a partner in the firm Cachemaille-Day, Welch and Lander, which designed several notable inter-war buildings. Hendon specified that the station should harmonise with the Urban Council Offices, which had opened in 1900 to designs by T. H. Watson. The Arts and Crafts style is clearly influenced by London County Council stations of the previous decade. The original plan was published in reverse in The Fireman magazine. The building included a flat for the Chief Officer at first floor, a dormitory for single men (now the mess room) and four flats for married men on the second floor. A perambulator store at ground floor reflected the on-site family accommodation. The second largest room after the engine room is the recreation room, featuring a large billiard table and windows on three sides, a distinctive feature of fire stations of this period.