Wembley Fire Station

Fire station, 1937-9, built for Wembley Urban District Council. The building has a steel and concrete frame clad in brown brick with a rendered cornice band, stone staircase tower, plinth and fluted architraves to the appliance bays. A third storey was added after the Second World War, with a single storey extension to the rear added in 1996 and other later alterations made subsequently.

The architecture expresses the Moderne style, the pre-eminent architectural style of the 1930s, through its clean, streamlined design—a rarity among fire stations of this period, most of which were built in traditional styles. The main façade faces north and features a tall central tower with three ground-floor appliance bays and two storeys of offices and mess rooms above on each side. The central tower has a ground floor pedestrian entrance with double doors flanked by small vertical windows containing Art Deco fountain motifs in the glazing, set beneath a flat concrete hood. Above this, fluted decoration frames the staircase window which rises through the tower's three storeys, with mullions and two narrow transoms dividing margin lights of fluted glazing. The appliance bays flanking the tower have three pairs of stained timber doors with banded brickwork between four-light metal casement windows on the first floor and a continuous band of casement windows on the second floor. The second floor is a post-war addition by Middlesex County Council, executed in the same style. A broad rendered projecting cornice band extends from the first floor to the side and rear elevations, which contain further metal casements. A striking broad canopy spans the back of the station on both sides of the projecting central rear section, providing cover for the fire engines, though the 1996 single storey extension constructed beneath the eastern canopy has diminished this bold feature. Other buildings in the station yard and the two houses flanking the station, though contemporary and built to support the fire station's function, have been substantially altered and are not of special interest.

The interior is accessed through the central tower entrance, leading to a staircase hall which retains good 1930s features including a lozenge glazed screen to the former control room, above which are horizontal panels with margin-light glazing and a 1930s clock. The lobby and staircase have terrazzo floors, the latter with a Moderne-style streamlined metal balustrade. The appliance bays retain their period light fittings and timber doors—unusual survivals—though one bay has been partitioned off to become an office. A second staircase is located to the rear, but much of the rest of the interior's original features have been removed. The doors are modern replacements, a lift has been inserted into the centre of the building, and suspended ceilings conceal part of the stylish smooth curved brackets to the beams.

Following the First World War, no new fire stations were built until 1925, but as the threat of renewed conflict emerged in the 1930s, Government responded to the possibility of future aerial war. In 1936, the Riverdale Committee recommended the formation of a uniform national organisation of fire services to replace the existing ad hoc system which varied between counties. The Fire Brigades Act of 1938 made fire services compulsory for every local authority and established a national commission to oversee activities. Wembley Fire Station exemplifies a station built during this transformative phase in fire service history, in preparation for one of the most significant periods of operational activity for fire brigades—the aerial bombardment of the Second World War. The station testifies to the expansion of the fire service during this period and the adoption of new equipment, expressed in its large number of appliance bays and impressive rear canopy for fire engines. The station was designed in the same year that Wembley Urban District Council was granted a charter of incorporation and became a municipal borough. It became part of Middlesex Fire Brigade in 1947, following nationalisation during the Second World War, and then passed to London Fire Brigade in 1965 when the Greater London Council was formed.