Former Harrow Road Police Station. including former cell block, and area railings

Summary

Former police station, built in 1911-1912 to designs by John Dixon Butler, architect and surveyor to the Metropolitan Police; the building was converted to residential accommodation in 2017.

Reasons for Designation

The former Harrow Road Police Station, including former cell block and area railings, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a dignified composition of considerable civic presence, with a Wrenaissance frontage enlivened by design features characteristic of the building’s early-C20 date, including the entranceway and railings, the whole built to a high standard in good quality materials;
* the survival of the attached cell block adds to the interest of the site;
* though the interior has been extensively altered, the principal stair with its cast-iron balustrade is a reminder of the status of the former police station.
* as a good example of the work of John Dixon Butler, one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects.


Historic interest:

* as an example of a larger London police station, built to provide extensive facilities, including accommodation for an inspector and constable, together with large dormitories for men, and extensive cell block accommodation;

History

The Harrow Road Police Station was constructed in 1911-1912, to designs by John Dixon Butler, architect and surveyor to the Metropolitan Police. A good example of a ‘first class town police station’, the main block of the complex contained divisional, administrative, and criminal investigation department offices, with domestic quarters for a married inspector and married constable, and rooms for 60 single men on the upper floors, as well as a library and other facilities. A cell wing to the south-west contained ten cells for men on the ground floor, and five cells for women on the first floor. The entrance to the rear yard was to the south-east, from Woodfield Road; an ancillary block with a hackney carriage office and bicycle shed stood to the south of this entrance, and to the south-east of the yard was a stable block and coach house with living accommodation above. In the early 1950s, housing south of the site was demolished for the provision of additional buildings associated with the police station.

John Dixon Butler (1861-1920) was appointed Architect and Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police in 1895, following the retirement of his father, John Butler, who had held the post since 1881. Dixon Butler was articled to his father and hence had a specialist education in the design and planning of police-related buildings; he also studied at University College London and the Architectural Association, and was elected a fellow of the RIBA in 1906. He began his tenure with the police assisting Richard Norman Shaw with buildings at New Scotland Yard and Cannon Row, and the Arts and Crafts influence of the older architect resonates in Dixon Butler’s oeuvre. He designed over 200 police stations and courts, of which 58 are known to have survived. The design of the Harrow Road Police Station shares a number of external architectural features with Hampstead Police Station, built in 1913.

Harrow Road Police Station closed in 2013. In 2017 the main block and cell wing were converted to flats and residential units. By that time, the building had undergone significant alteration and reconfiguration; the conversion resulted in more extensive change. As part of the same development, all ancillary buildings in the southern part of the site were demolished to make way for two new residential blocks: Wood House and Butler House (not included in the listing). The yard has been landscaped, and the reduced eastern entrance now named Dixon Butler Mews.

Details

Former police station, 1911-1912 by John Dixon Butler, architect and surveyor to the Metropolitan Police; converted to residential accommodation in 2017.

MATERIALS: red brick laid in Flemish bond with stone dressings. The roof is flat with a steep pitch to the front, broken by the gables of hipped sections to west, east and centre; the slopes are slated.

PLAN: the complex is a U-plan: the main block is to the north, fronting Harrow Road, with a shorter wing extending southwards to the east, originally providing domestic accommodation on the first floor, with a 2017 extension to its west, replacing an earlier link. A long former cell wing stands on a north/south alignment to the south-east, joined to the main block by a 2017 block, replacing an earlier link.

EXTERIOR: the main block, in Wrenaissance style, is nine bays wide, and three storeys high, with basement and attic. The main entrance is in the penultimate bay to the west: the stone doorcase has an open pediment supported on elongated console brackets, the word 'POLICE' inscribed within; the door opening has a cyma recta-moulded architrave with overscale triple keystone. The outer and central pedimented bays have stone canted bay windows rising from the semi-basement to the first floor. Window openings to the ground floor and bay windows hold casements with multi-pane top panels; the ground-floor openings have eared stone architraves. First- and second-floor openings hold two-over-two sash frames separated by central mullions; at first-floor level the window openings have gauged brick heads with keystones. The entablature has a projecting modillion cornice extending to frame the gables forming pediments; the large central pediment contains a Venetian-type window. A stone balustrade fronts the mansard roof with its dormer windows. Stone bands serve as quoins and a wide stone band serves as a plinth, demarcating the basement. The treatment of the eastern elevation is similar, this elevation having a single central pediment.

The flat-roofed block to the east is of two storeys. The east elevation, to Woodfield Road, has a glazed brick plinth, and plain stone window-heads. A brick and stone gatepier attached to the south marks the vehicular entance, the corresponding pier now gone. On the south elevation the fenestration is scattered, with gauged brick heads. The entrance to the south is unornamented but has a multipane overlight. The plain 2017 extension against the western flank of this block is of similar dimensions.

The former cell wing is a flat-roofed two-storey building, 11 bays wide. The rectangular cell windows have squared stone heads and concrete cills; the openings retain their original small-paned fixed frames with cast-iron glazing bars. At the west end are two bays of narrow sash windows, one converted from a cell-type window; this end formerly housed the detention room, with matron’s room above. A stone band runs across the lower part of the building. The ground-floor section extends further south than the first floor, reflecting the greater accommodation for male detainees; at the southern end the former ‘association cell’ – designed to hold more than one person – has been rendered, as has the rear of the cell wing.

INTERIOR: the interiors of both the main block and cell wing, now converted to flats and residential units, have been much altered, with extensive change to the plan, and loss of historic features. The two terrazzo staircases remain in their original positions: the dog-leg stair to the west, approached from the main entrance, retains its balustrade of scrolled cast-iron panels, and its timber handrail. The open-well stair to the east has been fitted with a new handrail. Evidence provided by photographs and plans indicates that the interiors of the flats do not retain features relating to the historic use of the building.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: the front area is surrounded by cast-iron railings set on a dwarf wall of glazed bricks; the railings follow a simple geometric pattern, with an Arts and Crafts/Art Nouveau flavour to the piers. A lamp standard survives at the base of the front steps, but the blue glass lamp which originally helped identify the building as a police station has gone.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

432178

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Cherry, Bridget, Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England London 3: North West, (1991), 680

End of official list entry

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