Drill Tower north-east of Lambeth Fire Station

Summary

Drill tower to the London Fire Brigade's former Headquarter's building, known as Lambeth Fire Station in 2023, constructed 1937 to the designs of EP Wheeler, FRIBA, architect of the LCC, and G Weald FRIBA.

Reasons for Designation

The drill tower at Lambeth Fire Station, built 1937 to the design of EP Wheeler FRIBA, Architect to the London County Council, assisted by G Weald, FRIBA is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural Interest:
* a distinctive drill tower which survives well externally, sharing the same palette of materials as the fire station;

Group Value:
* with the separately listed fire station and unlisted former technical school and workshops on the east side of Lambeth High Street.

History

The former London Fire Brigade Headquarters Building, known as Lambeth Fire Station in 2023, at 8 Albert Embankment marks the close of a long and remarkable programme of fire-station building which began in 1866 with the formation of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), the first publicly-funded authority charged with saving lives and protecting buildings from fire. Initially part of the Metropolitan Board of Works, the earliest fire stations were generally plain brick and few pre-1880 examples survive. In the 1880s under the MFB architect Robert Pearsall, the fire station acquired a true architectural identity, most notably in the rich Gothic style typical of Victorian municipal buildings such as Bishopsgate. It was the building boom of the 1890s-1900s however that was to transform fire station architecture and give the Brigade some of its most characterful buildings. In 1889 the fire brigade came under the control of the newly-formed London County Council (LCC), and from 1896 new stations were designed by a group of architects led by Owen Fleming and Charles Canning Winmill, both formerly of the LCC Housing Department, who brought the highly-experimental methods which had evolved for designing new social housing to the Fire Brigade Division, as the department was called from 1899, and drew on a huge variety of influences to create unique and commanding stations, each built to a bespoke design and plan. This exciting period in fire station design continued to the outbreak of the First World War, although there was some standardisation of design in the period. No new fire stations were built between 1916-1925, and only a few up to the Second World War and when building resumed, a more functional, stripped-down idiom was employed.

The new headquarters of the London Fire Brigade on Albert Embankment replaced the first HQ of 1876 in Southwark Bridge Road (listed Grade II) which was judged to be too constricted by 1929. After careful research into the requirements of the new headquarters, and suitability of the site, it was built on land formerly occupied by the London Pottery of Doulton & Co. purchased for £85k in 1934, with the unused Stiff's Dock at the north end. The Architect and Building News article of 19th February 1937 (see Sources) notes that it was considered a disadvantage that the site was bisected by Lambeth High Street (known as Lambhithe at the time) but acknowledged that it made it possible to group the buildings in clear distinction for their widely separate functions. The site fronting Albert Embankment was devoted to the control and administrative centre of the whole Brigade, in addition to the fire station and drill tower, and the site fronting Lambeth High Street was to provide workshops for the repair and maintenance of the Brigade’s motor vehicles and other equipment, garages and training school. The pontoon onto the Thames accommodated the river fire station (rebuilt in the C21).

Located on a prominent site facing the Thames, all buildings on the site (apart from the obelisk) were designed during the five year tenure of EP Wheeler (1874-1944) as Architect to the Council, assisted by G Weald and possibly also by Frederick Hiorns, who succeeded Wheeler as Architect to the LCC in 1939. All of the buildings have a broadly Moderne style, with severe geometry, complementing other contemporary buildings nearby such as the now demolished neighbouring WH Smith building to the north, a striking Art Deco composition of 1933 by HO Ellis and Clarke. Wheeler was a stalwart of the LCC Architect’s Department, who specialised in housing schemes, but with HFT Cooper (the architect of four listed London fire stations) extended the Grade-II listed South Thames College in Wandsworth and designed the former Central St Martin’s building on Charing Cross Road in 1939 (unlisted).

The headquarters was opened on 21st June 1937 by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth recorded on British Pathe film (see Sources). Contemporary journals reported the facilities of the site in much detail, and note that the drill tower of nine storeys, located diagonally at the north-east corner of the site, was to be used for training. The balconies at the back of the main Headquarters building were designed to be used as a grandstand to enable over eight hundred people to watch weekly public drill displays, in which the drill tower would have played a part.

Plans held in the London Metropolitan Archive indicate that the drill tower stairs were located at the west side of the building and the hose hoist at the rear, the upper mechanism located at the eighth floor. The drill tower could not be inspected as part of this assessment as it was being used for training but survives well externally and is understood to do so internally.

Details

Drill tower. 1937 designed by LCC's architect E P Wheeler FRIBA, assisted by G Weald FRIBA as part of the London Fire Brigade Headquarters scheme.

Exterior: the drill tower is set diagonally to the main building in the north-east corner of the drill yard. It has a steel-framed structure, clad in light grey-brown brick laid in English bond, over 30m (100 feet) high. The tower has nine storeys, in addition to a basement and sub-basement, the principal front faces south-west into the yard, its main entrance is at the centre of the ground floor, and has a timber door with a stone surround flanked by Crittall casement windows with margin lights, concrete cills and lintels. There are stepped-back side walls with secondary entrances into an irregular covered area at the ground floor and a two storey rear outshut with pent roof at the rear. The ground and first floors have a rusticated-like treatment beneath a stone band. There are two window openings with metal grilles to each floor of the principal front, the returns are blind and the rear elevation has smaller openings to the lower five floors. The top two floors of the front elevation are recessed with stone cornices.

Interior: the tower is thought to have a smoke chamber at the ground floor and drill facilities on the upper floors served by a staircase, and a wet hose hoist at the rear.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

501189

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Nadal, J, Londons Fire Stations, (2006)
Reading, Billy, Fire Stations, (2017)
London Headquarters in The Fireman, (April 1935), 146-7
London Fire Brigade Headquarters in Architect and Building News, (19th February 1937), 233-239
The New Headquarters of the London Fire Brigade in The Builder, (March 1937), 567-571

Websites
British Pathe film of opening, accessed 7th July 2023 from https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/75940/

Other
English Heritage London Historian Files LAM/35
London Metropolitan Archive file LCC/FB/Gen 07/007, /009, /010, /021, /023
London's Historic Fire Stations, English Heritage/London Fire Brigade March 2010
The Illustrated London News, 24th July 1937

End of official list entry

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