London Road Fire Station, Manchester

In 1897 the Manchester Watch Committee was considering a replacement for its fire station on Jackson's Row. A five-man sub-committee was set up and recommended a site on Newton Street. In 1899, George William Parker who had designed fire stations in Bootle and Belfast, and been referred to as the "architect of the world's fire service" was appointed Chief of the Manchester Fire Brigade and asked his opinion on the proposal. Parker reported that the site on Newton Street was unsuitable and submitted plans for a fire station on a site bounded by London Road, Whitworth Street, Minshull Street South and Fairfield Street.[3][4][5]

Parker's proposal was for a 7-bay fire station on a site more than double the size of the one proposed on Newton Street. The choice of London Road was influenced by its proximity to a development of warehouses on Whitworth Street and Princess Street. Parker convinced the city council to choose his proposals rather than those on Newton Street.[4][5][6]

A competition, with prizes of £300, £200 and £100 (equivalent to £34,000, £23,000 and £11,000 in 2023[7]) was organised to design the new fire station.[8][9] The competition drew interest from across the country, attracting 25 entries. The winning entry was by John Henry Woodhouse, George Harry Willoughby and John Langham, a team of local architects. Their design was based closely on Parker's initial plans.[8][10] The fire station was described by Fire Call magazine as "the finest fire station in this round world" before construction started.[5][9]

The fire station was built between 1904 and 1906 at a cost of £142,000 (equivalent to £16.2 million in 2023[7]).[8] The building's substructure and foundations were built by C. H. Normanton of Manchester. The superstructure was built by Gerrard's of Swinton at a cost of £75,360.[9] It was faced with red brick and terracotta by Burmantofts, a common choice for early 20th-century buildings in Manchester as it was cleanable and resisted the pollution and acid rain caused by local industry.[9] Other notable Manchester buildings from this era making use of terracotta include the Midland Hotel, the Refuge Assurance Building, the University of Manchester's Sackville Street Building and the Victoria Baths.[10] The building's exterior featured sculptural models by John Jarvis Millson representing the functions of the building such as justice, fire and water.[1][8][11][12][13]

The building had stained glass windows and the interior was decorated with glazed bricks, similar to other public buildings of this era in the city, such as the Victoria Baths. The similarities suggest the influence and adoption of a standard design by Henry Price's newly created City Architect's Department.[14]

The station's coroner's court

The building was opened on 27 September 1906 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester James Herbert Thewlis.[1] In addition to the fire station, it housed a police station on Whitworth Street, an ambulance station on Minshull Street South,[15] a branch of Williams Deacon's Bank at the corner of London Road and Fairfield Street,[16][17] a coroner's court, and a gas-meter testing station on London Road. The coroner's court and gas-meter testing station replaced the proposed public library and gym.[11][18]

Plan showing the layout of the building.[3]
Legend

  Fire Station

  Ambulance Station

  Police Station

  Gas-meter Testing Station

  Coroner's Court

  Bank

The fire station contained flats for 32 firemen and their families and 6 single firemen.[8][13] Facilities included a laundry, gym, billiards room and children's play-areas. The complex contained stables for the horses that pulled the fire appliances, and a blacksmith's workshop.[19] There were electric bells and lights to alert firemen to an alarm, poles to expedite the firemen's response, suspended harnesses to allow the horses to be harnessed quickly, and electric doors.[11] The fire station was also designed with foresight; the appliance bays were made wide enough to take motorised fire appliances.[1] The station's first motorised fire appliance arrived in 1911, five years after it opened.[20]

The building has a 130-foot (40 m) hose tower[1] and a ventilation system designed by Musgrave and Company to prevent the odour from the horses' stalls entering the firemen's living quarters. Fresh air was drawn in through the top of the fire station's tower, purified and circulated around the building. When the air reached the end of the circuit, in the stalls, it was extracted from the building. The system meant that the air in the building was replaced every 10 minutes.[18]

During the Second World War the basement was converted into an air-raid shelter and an extension built in the yard to provide more space in the control room.[21] The fire services were nationalised in 1941, and London Road became the headquarters of Division C. In recognition of the fire fighters' efforts King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited the fire station in 1942.[14]

After the war the Manchester Fire Brigade was again municipalised, and reorganised. London Road Fire Station was restored as the headquarters of the brigade and became the only fire station serving the city centre.[22] A fire service training centre was established in 1948.[23] At about the same time, the ambulance station closed and was converted into the fire brigade's workshops.[14] The control room was modernised in 1952, becoming the first in the country with equipment to record emergency calls.[21][24]

The interior was refurbished in 1955. The exterior had been cleaned every year since the fire station opened, and as a result was in pristine condition when the building celebrated its Golden Jubilee on 6 October 1956.[25]

A relief panel above London Road entrance, representing fire[12]

By the end of the 1960s maintenance was becoming increasingly expensive, and the building's design ill-suited to modern fire appliances. Plans to replace the fire station were put on hold pending the formation of the Greater Manchester Fire Service.[26]

The building has been Grade II* listed since 1974,[27] the same year that the replacement of the Manchester Fire Brigade by the Greater Manchester Fire Service precipitated the relocation of the brigade's headquarters to a new facility in Swinton. As part of the reorganisation, London Road became the headquarters of the brigade's "E Division", with the station's control room responsible for two divisions covering the City of Manchester, the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport and Tameside.[28][29]

The reorganisation meant the number of appliances was reduced, until only three remained at the station.[30] The control room at London Road closed in 1979, replaced by a single computerised control room at brigade headquarters in Swinton.[28][31]

In the same year, following the establishment of Greater Manchester Police and a reorganisation of policing in the city, the police station in the building also closed. The closure left the ground floor on the Whitworth Street side empty.[28][31] The last tenants of the bank section, a firm of solicitors, and the fire brigade's workshops, also vacated the building at about the same time.[26]

In 1984 construction work began on a £2.4 million, 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) replacement in Thompson Street and in 1985 the old London Road Fire Station was brought within the Whitworth Street Conservation Area.[32] In 1986 the fire service left London Road for its new fire station, London Road Fire Station closed and the building was sold.[3][33][34]

• Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
• Listed buildings in Manchester-M1

Notes

Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to London Road Fire Station.

• Official website

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