Fire Brigade Station, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

Fire Brigade Station, Lauriston Place, Edinburgh

A Queen Anne fire station designed by Robert Morham between 1897 and 1901, now serving as headquarters and museum. The building is a substantial 3-storey structure with attic accommodation, arranged as a 4-bay square-plan block (the Engine House) facing Lauriston Place, extending to 13 bays along the street line. A distinctive circular corner tower at the re-entrant angle features a finialled bell-cast roof. The hose-drying tower is a 5-stage square-plan structure, though truncated (see notes).

The main building is constructed of Locharbriggs red sandstone ashlar, with granite facing to the ground floor of the Lauriston Place block, and squared and snecked sandstone to the rear. The ground floor is channelled, with a projecting band separating it from the first floor. A broad modillioned eaves cornice runs across the building, with long and short quoins to the first and second floors. Ground floor windows are round-arched openings; the first and second floor windows have moulded surrounds, those on the first floor being corniced.

On the Lauriston Place (south) elevation, four key-blocked round-arched openings to the ground floor contain modern glazed metal doors, with cartouches positioned at the centre and above the outer doors. Above these, the outer bays contain canted 2-storey oriel windows with segmental pediments to the first floor. A stone parapet, balustered at the centre, rises above. Stone-mullioned windows set in scrolled steeply-gabled dormers light the attic in the outer bays, while small segmental-headed slate-hung dormers set back into the centre bays provide additional light.

The Lady Lawson Street (south-west) elevation is more complex. A timber-panelled door to the stair tower, set in a moulded surround with curved segmental pediment, is accompanied by windows with leaded stained glass and small square windows under the eaves. A single-storey projecting porch in the outer right bay has a swept profile and contains a glazed 2-leaf timber door within a glazed timber screen topped by a swan-necked pediment in a key-blocked round-arched surround; a carved panel with guttae sits on the stone parapet above. A timber-panelled door with small-pane glazed fanlight in a corniced moulded surround marks the third bay from the left, flanked by windows in recessed round-arched surrounds. The centre of this elevation features an advanced mansard-roofed 3-bay block with long and short quoins; the ground floor has a small window flanked by large windows in round-arched openings, while the first and second floors have bipartite windows (the first floor with segmental pediment) flanked by channelled blocks. A stone balustered parapet crowns this section, and a tripartite stone-mullioned window in a scrolled steeply-pedimented dormer lights the attic. Another timber-panelled door with small-pane glazed fanlight in a corniced moulded surround appears at the sixth bay from the left.

The side (south-east) elevation displays two Diocletian windows at ground floor level, with a 2-storey oriel above containing paired first-floor windows and a single second-floor window, the latter topped by a segmental pediment.

On the opposite side (north-west) elevation, an advanced bay to the right is blind above ground floor level and topped by a scrolled pediment clasping a corbelled chimney. A 2-bay section to the left (not channelled at ground floor) contains small windows to the first and second floors in the right bay.

The rear (north-east) elevation features round-arched openings to the ground floor and later cast-iron balconies to the first and second floors. The square-plan hose-drying tower rises from this elevation with curved metal balconies and engaged channelled shafts to the top stage. Various alterations and additions of different dates affect the left portion and fourth floor.

Interior features include cast-iron columns and timber ceilings in the Engine House, finished with white glazed tiles. Mahogany-panelled doors with brass hinges are found throughout, and a fire pole descends from the Fire Master's flat. The telegraph room is timber-panelled, while the stables retain timber and cast-iron stalls with herring-bone glazed brick flooring.

Throughout the building, predominantly 12-pane glazing is installed in timber sash and case windows. The roof is covered with greenish Westmoreland slates, and decorative cast-iron down pipes with ornamental hoppers drain the building. Tall corniced ashlar chimney stacks rise prominently from the roof.

An ancillary single-storey building with attic accommodation stands to the rear, formerly used for stables and similar purposes. Constructed of squared and snecked red sandstone with bracketed eaves and stone skews, it is roofed with graded greenish slates and has undergone alterations at various later dates.

The boundary wall is of squared and snecked sandstone with corniced red sandstone gatepiers; those to the north-east feature blind round-arched keyblocked openings. A pedimented keyblocked red sandstone gateway to the centre of the south-east elevation is decorated with a carved panel and guttae. Cast-iron railings with decorative pierced motifs, including the Edinburgh Fire Board monogram and Coat of Arms, enclose the site.