Summary
A former police and fire station, built 1938-1940, and designed by R M Finch OBE, Nottingham City Engineer, assisted by Alexander Steele, with extensions and alterations in the mid-to-late C20.
Reasons for Designation
Nottingham’s former Police Headquarters and Central Fire Station, built in 1938-1940 to designs by R M Finch OBE, assisted by Alexander Steele, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as an impressive and well-realised design for combined police and fire station headquarters by a reputable municipal designer;
* despite its apparent simplicity, the building is skilfully composed with subtle detailing and occasional flourishes, including striking Art Deco corner entrance bays with ornamented doorways and emblematic carved figures;
* the building demonstrates high quality and good attention to detail in its materials and construction, which is carried through even to the secondary areas and utilitarian spaces;
* despite its continued use into the C21 the building survives remarkably well and retains many of its original fixtures and fittings, with internal decorative finishes of particular quality.
Historic interest:
* the design and construction of the building is illustrative of the unique political and economic context of the pre-war period during which it was built.
History
By the late 1930s, Nottingham’s fire department had outgrown its premises on South Sherwood Street. Built in conjunction with the Guildhall between 1887 and 1888, the old fire station had not been designed or located with motorised fire engines in mind and, with the threat of war looming, modern facilities were required to facilitate an expanded service, located such that it could respond to calls more immediately. Similarly, the Home Office had become insistent that the police’s premises should also be improved as their accommodation in the basement of the Guildhall was deemed to be both impractical and detrimental to officers’ health.
In 1937 the General Purposes Committee proposed an extension to the Guildhall that would provide spacious modern facilities for both the police and fire services as well as centralised accommodation for other civic departments including heath, education and estates. However, development of the civic quarters was postponed and only the north end of the guildhall site, accommodating the police and fire station, was ever constructed.
The building was designed by the City Engineer and Surveyor, R M Finch, assisted by Alexander Steele, who went on to become Edinburgh City Architect. Finch was responsible for several municipal buildings around Nottingham and was awarded an OBE in 1939 for services in connection with Air Raid Precautions. Following the Home Office’s national recommendations, specific consideration was given to strengthen the building against air raids. Its fire-resistant construction was reported to have comprised a steel frame, hollow brick floors and concrete cased steelwork. The size of the glass panes within the steel windows was reported to have been kept to a minimum to give added strength in the event of aerial attack.
Building work commenced in 1938 and the first portions of the building were occupied in October 1940. The building was designed in a simplified classical style with Art Deco influences. Descriptions of the building soon after it was built noted its up-to-date features such as central heating, modern forensic laboratories and fashionably-furnished recreation facilities. The central appliance bays on to the northern elevation were designed to accommodate seven machines. Above this was a large hall which provided facilities for amateur theatricals, dancing and dining, and could be subdivided with sliding partitions. The location of the main telephone room departed from accepted principles of having a watch room next to the appliance room, instead loud speaking equipment was installed to communicate between the telephonist and the engine drivers. A central block, connected to the police station and guildhall with second floor walkways, provided on site accommodation for the mechanised division of police and a ground floor workshop for the fire brigade (not included in the listing).
Provision was made in the design to expand the building by up to two additional storeys and some time after 1957, a further floor was added to the police station and two storeys were added to the six southernmost bays of the fire station. Some modernisation and reordering of the interior also took place. Partition walls, suspended ceilings and modern fire doors were inserted within the former function room and the stage, sliding partitions and some of the timber panelling was removed. The street-side appliance bay doors were replaced with modern shutters and a glazed walkway was introduced into the drill yard. The buildings were closed in 2016 and the police headquarters and fire station were relocated. Plaques and statues of lions, formerly mounted on stone piers within the principal stair lobbies, were removed around this time. In winter 2022-2023 the fireplace in the Chief Constable’s office was vandalised.
Details
A former police and fire station, built 1938-1940, and designed by R M Finch OBE, Nottingham City Engineer, assisted by Alexander Steele, with extensions and alterations in the mid-to-late C20.
MATERIALS: the main building is constructed with a steel frame, hollow tile floors and concrete cased steelwork. The external, street-facing walls are faced with Stancliffe stone with brick backing. The appliance bay door surrounds are treated with Kenmay granite. The inner courtyard elevations are finished in yellow/grey brick with contrasting bands of brown brick to the ground floor. Windows are steel framed and set in timber frames. Internal staircases have been treated with reconstructed marble and terrazzo.
PLAN: the building has a roughly U-shaped plan with elevations fronting Shakespeare Street to the north, North Church Street to the east and South Sherwood Street to the west. There is a courtyard to the south. The north range features the central appliance bays to ground floor level with the former function room above. To the north-west corner is the principal entrance and main staircase to the former offices of the fire station, located in the west range, while the north-east corner provides the entrance and main stair and lift to the police offices in the east range. Long corridors span the length of the east and west ranges leading to offices on either side.
EXTERIOR: the building is composed of three perpendicular ranges constructed in a simplified classical, Art Deco manner. The north and west elevations are set over three storeys with a basement, rising to four storeys on the east side and five at the south end of this range. The two principal entrances are set within canted bays to the north-west and north-east corners of the building. The north-west tower projects above the height of the building, with fielded panels to the parapet. The east entrance, leading to the police department, is approached by semi-circular steps while the west entrance is at street level. Both doorways feature multi-panelled timber double doors set within carved timber surrounds featuring motifs of animals and flowers. Above each is a rectangular fan light and circular light recesses. The doorways are flanked by chamfered stone columns with engraved capitals, and three-paned slit windows to either side. Above each doorway are three tiers of slit windows separated by slender pilasters. Surmounting each is a relief sculpture of a figure: a fireman to the north-west entrance and a policeman to north-east.
The north elevation has a central block featuring seven appliance bays within a projecting, ground-floor entryway. The bays are divided by square granite columns with carved horizontal striped capitals. The half-glazed appliance doors are modern. Above are seven windows with eight horizontal panes and margin lights. The third-floor windows are of the same style but with horizontal emphasis, above a continuous sill and beneath a shallow canopy. The flanking bays feature slit windows above square entrance openings with roller shutters.
The west and east elevations are set over three and four storeys respectively with 13 bays of identical windows to the east side and 14 to the west. All of these windows have six horizontal panes and margin lights and window surrounds outlined in relief: a style repeated across the building. There are shallow moderne-style stone canopies above second floor windows in groups of three on both elevations: one on the west side and two on the east. To the east elevation is a single central doorway at ground floor level with a plain projecting rectangular surround. The entrance door on the west elevation is within the southernmost bay and features a projecting door frame with rounded corners, fluted to the inside. Within this is a pair of timber, single-panelled doors with recessed central knobs. To the south end of the west elevation, the adjoining three bays, set over five storeys, project slightly forward of building line. The ground floor of this section is rusticated and features a projecting door surround with plain cornice, infilled with a window, and two windows either side. There are three windows to the first and second floors. The central window to the second floor features a pediment supported on corbels and a stone trough beneath. There are three wider windows to the third and fourth floors with continuous sills and a shallow canopy to the third floor. A low stone wall, with square profile and subtle relief band, runs along the east and west perimeter of the building, curving to meet the building at its entrances. A modern ramp has been inserted on the west side of the building.
Within the courtyard, on the south side of the appliance bays have their original folding timber doors. Above is a moderne-style first floor balcony with moulded edges and decorative steel railings and brackets. This provides a coffered canopy supported on concrete ribs between the appliance bays. Between the ground and second floor, at either end of the balcony, are two canted brick piers expressing the location of the fireman’s pole chutes. These are surmounted by steel railings and serve as balconies for the windows above. Between these are seven full height windows, with seven horizontal windows to the floor above. The north four bays of the western elevation step down to two storeys and the remaining bays have large square windows to each floor. There is a modern glazed walkway along the ground floor. At either end of the east courtyard elevation there are elongated windows to secondary stairwells composed of glass blocks, the northernmost is divided into two long windows with a central wedge-shaped column. The east elevation has four floors of windows, those to the second floor are horizontal.
INTERIOR: the principal entrances to both the police and fire stations feature staircases with decorative balustrades with spiral patterned steelwork and moulded timber handrails. The stairs and landings have terrazzo floors and slabbed walls with carved, stepped skirting and fluted stone pilasters. There are gaps on the landing where the stone piers formerly supported carved lion statues. The doorways and lift shafts leading from the lobby have carved stone surrounds and glazed doors with ornamental metalwork grills. Some modern glazed partitioning and later fire doors have been introduced. Secondary staircases feature solid balustrades with stylised detailing. There are service recesses, radiator ledges, stylised radiator covers, and moulded architraves, skirting and cornicing throughout the building.
Fire Station: the entrance lobby to the fire station features a revolving half-glazed timber door with inlay detail to surrounds. The interior of the appliance bays has an inlaid terrazzo floor and square ceiling panels. The folding timber appliance doors to the courtyard side retain their original ironmongery. The former function room above is fully panelled in Australian Walnut on the north and south walls. Later partitions have been introduced to this room and the stage has been removed. The scalloped canopy to the stage and ceiling grills with decorative curled metal work are present above the inserted suspended ceiling. Likewise, Art-Deco plasterwork is present to the ceiling of adjacent room. Former accommodation areas in the west block feature classical moulded architraves, built in storage, a Ure ‘back to back’ cooker and grate and ceramic tiled bathroom.
Police Station: the former Chief constable’s room and adjacent conference room are panelled to full height with Indian laurel with contrasting inlaid bands to walls and doors. The principal room retains stylised radiator covers, inlaid sliding doors and plaster ceiling moulding and formerly featured a moulded Art Deco fireplace, which was vandalised in winter 2022-2023. Other offices on this floor are half panelled. The corridors feature pilasters with simple capitals and ceiling moulding. Some of the offices have architrave detailing to doorways and top lights. The staircase to the south end of the east range is half-panelled with moulded terrazzo, with a metal balustrade and square-tiled pilasters with ceramic capitals. The main reception and waiting room to the police station feature modern fixtures and finishes.
This list entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 17 August 2023 to amend the description, and add two references to selected sources.
