Central Fire Station

The Central Fire Station, built around 1902 by F W Lacey, is a Grade II listed fire station located on Holdenhurst Road. It features a red brick and ashlar construction with a plain tile roof and stands three storeys tall with an attic, showcasing a six-bay asymmetrical facade in a Free Renaissance style.

On the ground floor, the facade is finished in ashlar, with each bay containing a flat-headed entrance framed by polygonal stone piers. The central bay includes a pedestrian doorway flanked by flambeau lights, with two folding engine doorways on either side and a gated through-way leading to the rear yard on the right-hand bay.

The first floor presents pairs of round-arched windows set between polygonal piers made of banded brick and ashlar, while the narrow central bay features a single window. The second floor is marked by square-headed windows that are fronted by a balustrade, with the narrow central bay showcasing a canted oriel window that rises as a turret topped with a cupola. This cupola is adorned with a small domed lantern on colonettes, complete with a tall finial and weather-vane, and both the cupola and lantern are covered in bright green patterned tiles. The two left-hand bays are set under a gable, which has a frieze above the second-floor windows, an oculus, and a coat-of-arms at the apex.

At the rear, glass canopies supported by iron trusses extend in front of the portals. Inside, the walls are finished with glazed tiles and bricks, and bays one and two feature a frieze depicting firemen in action. This building is richly detailed and serves as a notable example of early 20th-century fire station architecture.