Former City of London Police Headquarters

Details

627/10/10078 GRESHAM STREET 22-JUL-98 (South side) 60 GRESHAM STREET (South side) 56-58 OLD JEWRY EC2 (West side) 26 FORMER CITY OF LONDON POLICE HEADQUART ERS (Formerly listed as: OLD JEWRY EC2 26 CITY OF LONDON POLICE HEADQUARTERS)

II Police headquarters. 1926-30 in replica neo-Georgian style by Sydney Perks. Incorporated in early-C21 office development which is not of special interest. Early-C18 staircase reused from earlier building on the site; also mid C18 doorcases.

PLAN: The former police headquarters was built in three brick ranges around a truncated L-shaped courtyard with a Portland stone entrance block onto Old Jewry. This building is now adjoined by a C21 office development which comprises the site of all the former buildings north of the police headquarters in the block between Old Jewry and Ironmonger Lane and fronting onto Gresham Street.

EXTERIOR: The 1920s brick courtyard ranges are four-storey plus basement with a modern attic storey with flat roofed dormers on the west range and western end of the north range. The north elevation is of seven bays with the two left hand bays set back and containing in the westernmost bay a mid-C18 ornate wooden doorcase with fluted Doric columns and segmental pediment. The west elevation, opposite the courtyard entrance, is of three bays on the ground floor and four on the upper-storeys. The south elevation is of five bays with an identical mid C18 doorcase to that in the north façade set centrally, as well as a further door in the eastern corner with an arched hood, four-pane side-lights and a carriage lamp above. The red brickwork is in English bond and all windows are 12-pane sashes with segmental brick arches and prominent Portland stone sills. The basement windows, directly below the ground floor sash windows, have ironwork grills. Six-storey Portland stone entrance block to east with passageway to courtyard forms final bay of neoclassical façade to Nos. 27-33 Old Jewry. In the courtyard an ironwork ornamental arch is topped by a lantern surmounted by the City of London's heraldic griffin.

None of the street elevations are of special interest; all date to the 2008-9 development with the exception of the neoclassical frontage to the previous No. 54 Gresham Street and the police headquarters entrance block.

INTERIOR: The principal interest of the building is the early-C18 staircase and panelling relocated during the 1920s rebuilding to an entrance hall created in the north-west corner. The stair was the subject of a special preservation order, an unusual conservation gesture for the time. The staircase is of wood, possibly mahogany, with three flights. Balusters of spiral spindles and colonnettes; corner balusters treated as fluted columns with acanthus capitals. Moulded handrail, wreathed at bottom with curtail step. Decorative brackets to sides of treads. Fielded panelling topped by cornice to hall on ground floor, landings to upper floors, walls lining staircase and underside of stairs. The staircase itself is more or less complete; the panelling and, in particular, the cornice have been carefully mended and partly rebuilt to an original design. Other than the stairs and panelled landings the western block is the only part of the former police station to retain any fittings of interest, with the first floor room having 1920s wooden panelling, fireplaces and an ornate plaster ceiling with moulded cornice and medallions in the four corners. The modern office space comprising the rest of the office development is not of special interest.

HISTORY: Following the creation in 1839 of the City of London Police, which replaced the archaic system of the City's Day Police and Nightly Watch and was independent of the Metropolitan Police, a residence for the Commissioner of the new force, Daniel Whittle Harvey, was purchased at 26 Old Jewry in 1841. Harvey was not consulted on the purchase and this led to a protracted dispute over the condition of the building with the Police Committee. The first documents relating to 26 Old Jewry date from 1769 and concern a mortgage taken out by Lord Waltham for a freehold dwelling house with warehouses, although the original merchant's house is reputed to date from 1725. By 1830 the building was in use as a counting house and silk warehouse. After its purchase by the City of London Police for £6,500 the building underwent a number of refurbishments including work in 1861, until it was completely rebuilt by The City of London Corporation's Chief Architect, Sydney Perks, in neo-Georgian style, and extended back to a rear entrance on Ironmonger Lane between 1926 and 1930. This work took place before statutory listing had been introduced and therefore the retention of historic features by a preservation order was an unusual conservation gesture. The building ceased to be the Commissioner's official residence in 1863 and became the administrative headquarters of the City of London Police until it was vacated in 2001 and the site developed for offices. Of the other buildings incorporated into the office development Nos. 56-66 Gresham Street were rebuilt in 1949 following bomb damage during World War II. All had a variety of commercial uses.

SOURCES: Ben Weinreb, Christopher Hibbert, Julia Keay, John Keay: The London Encyclopaedia - Third Edition (2008)

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Former City of London Police Headquarters is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * A 1920s Neo-Georgian police headquarters with a fine early C18 staircase and panelling, relocated during the rebuilding of the police headquarters; * Special historic interest for the stair's pre-statutory listing special order, at that time an unusual conservation gesture; * For its special historical interest as the residence of the first City of London Police Commissioner, Daniel Whittle Harvey.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

469703

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Weinreb, B, Hibbert, C, Keay, J, Keay, J, The London Encyclopaedia - Third Edition, (2008)

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