Reasons for Designation
Aston Fire Station, Ettington Road, Aston, Birmingham (1923) is recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: The building is a carefully-designed composition which is well-related to its immediate site and neighbourhood and provides a powerful symbol of civic pride and care.
* Intactness: It is a particularly intact example of an early C20 fire station with a range of features including a drying tower which retains its internal fittings.
* Group value: It has group value with the Broadway Comprehensive School (Grade II) and the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Margaret Mary (Grade II).
Details
997/0/10531 ETTINGTON ROAD
10-JUN-10 Aston Fire Station
II
A Fire Station of 1923, built by E. Crowder of Hockley. The building is of red brick, laid in English bond, with stone dressings and a plain tiled roof. The central block of three storeys has the engine shed at ground floor level with firemen's accommodation above. This is flanked by entrances to the fire station at right (east) and the former Fire Chief's house at left (west) with a tower, for hose drying and practice, attached at the north-east corner.
EXTERIOR: Facing south onto Ettington Road is a symmetrical, Neo-Georgian front with a central block of six bays and three storeys, which has a gabled roof, flanked by slightly recessed wings of two bays and two storeys with hipped roofs. There is considerable use of ashlar dressings across the front. The central block has four garage doors to the ground floor (replaced in the later-C20) with panelled ashlar pilasters between the openings. Above these is a continuous cornice and frieze, with carved laurel wreaths above the pilasters and a coat of arms to the centre. To the top of the building is another cornice, with dentils and a blocking course, and to the corners are flush quoins which alternate with brickwork. The six bays of first and second floor windows all have stone surrounds and these are tied together by a cornice and pulvinated frieze above each first floor window which connects with a panelled apron beneath each second floor window. The prominent chimneys to the sides and centre all have alternate bands of ashlar and brickwork, continuing the pattern of the quoins below. Each of the lateral wings has a canted bay window of two storeys, set closest to the centre of the front, flanked by a doorway with projecting semi-circular hood which is joined to the first floor sash window above by an ashlar frontispiece.
Both eastern and western sides are blank to their lower bodies but with flush stone bands and porthole windows to the gable ends of the central block.
To the rear are the four bays of the engine wash, which is a single storey projection which has glazed, pitched roofing to the central bays and asphalted, flat roofing to the lateral bays. New doors have been fitted to the three western bays and the eastern bay is blocked with casement windows, but probably originally conformed to the configuration of the other bays. Windows to the first and second floors are casements of two and three lights and there has been some alteration to these openings to accommodate a fire escape at right and also to an arched doorway at left, which has been blocked.
Attached at left is the practice tower which has a double doorway with arched ashlar hood to the north face. The building has four floors and these are blank to the lower body. At second floor level there is a recessed panel to each side and each has a window with triple keystone to the projecting lintel. The northern window has now been removed and the opening blocked. To the top of the tower is an elaborate cap with deep cornice, above which each face has a semi-circular window with emphatic voussoirs and projecting triple keystone. Above this the ashlar cap has a cornice and blocking course and a shallow pediment to each side.
INTERIOR: The engine shed has black, white and grey patterned tiling to the walls and green, grey and white tiling to the floor which has a chequerboard to each of the four bays, with arrow and diamond shapes to the borders. This has suffered some areas of loss, but is largely intact. Brass fire poles to the centre of each side wall connect to the first and second floors of the building. At first floor level the former firemen's bedrooms have lost their fire surrounds, but the layout appears unaltered in its essentials. On the second floor the space has been subdivided by partition walls. The interior of the tower retains its iron stairways and the pulleys, winches and cleats which formerly allowed for the drying of canvas hoses.
The interior of the block of flats has been altered to convert them to office space and corridors have been opened out to connect all of the former flats on each level.
HISTORY
The foundation stone for the building was laid on 26th June, 1923 and it opened on 19th November of the same year. The cost was £25,577 and the builder was E. Crowder of Hockley. The building is believed to have originally functioned with the existing, central engine shed to the ground floor, exiting onto Ettington Road, flanked by entrances to the fire station at right (east) and the Fire Chief's house at left (west) Firemen's bedrooms were at first-floor level and the second floor appears to have been a large recreation room. Fire surrounds have been removed from the first-floor bedrooms, which now function as locker rooms and gymnasium spaces. The second-floor space has been subdivided.
A separate block of firemen's flats to the east side of the rear yard appears to date from the 1930s and is not of special interest.
SOURCE
Mark Field, Aston Fire Station 1923-2009 (2009), (visitors' pamphlet produced for Heritage Open Day).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
Aston Fire Station, Ettington Road, Aston, Birmingham (1923)is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural: The building is a carefully-designed composition which is well-related to its immediate site and neighbourhood and provides a powerful symbol of civic pride and care.
* Intactness: It is a particularly intact example of an early C20 fire station with a range of features including a drying tower which retains its internal fittings.
* Group value: It has group value with the Broadway Comprehensive School (Grade II) and the Church of the Sacred Heart and St Margaret Mary (listed Grade II).
