Jump to content

London Road Fire Station, Manchester

Add links
Coordinates: 53°28′36″N 2°13′56″W / 53.47667°N 2.23222°W / 53.47667; -2.23222
This is a good article. Click here for more information.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Purpleprose (talk | contribs) at 15:04, 18 May 2015 (→‎2015 sale). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

London Road Fire Station
Photograph
View from junction of London Road and Whitworth Street
Map
General information
TypeMixed use
Architectural styleEdwardian baroque architecture
Town or cityManchester
CountryEngland
Construction started1904
Completed27 September 1906
Cost£142,000
ClientManchester City Council
Technical details
Floor count4
Design and construction
Architect(s)Woodhouse, Willoughby & Langham (Manchester)
Other designersJ J Millson, G W Parker
DesignationsListed Grade II*

London Road Fire Station is a former fire station in Manchester, England. It was opened in 1906,[1] on a site bounded by London Road, Whitworth Street, Minshull Street South and Fairfield Street. Designed in the Edwardian Baroque style by Woodhouse, Willoughby and Langham in red brick and terracotta, it cost £142,000 to build. It has been a Grade II* listed building since 1974.

In addition to a fire station, the building housed a police station, an ambulance station, a bank, a Coroner's Court, and a gas-meter testing station. The fire station operated for 80 years, housing the firemen, their families, and the horse drawn appliances that were replaced by motorised vehicles a few years after its opening. It was visited by royalty in 1942, in recognition of the brigade's wartime efforts. After the war it became a training centre and in 1952 became the first centre equipped to record emergency calls. However, the fire station became expensive to maintain and after council reorganisation decline set in.

The building was the headquarters of the Manchester Fire Brigade until the brigade was replaced by the Greater Manchester Fire Service in 1974. The fire station closed in 1986, since when it has been largely unused despite several redevelopment proposals. It was placed on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register in 2001 and in 2010 Manchester City Council served a compulsory purchase order on the fire station's owner, Britannia Hotels.

Construction

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.[2][3][4]

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.[3][4][5]

A competition, with prizes of £300, £200 and £100 (equivalent to £41,000, £27,000 and £14,000 in 2024[6]) was organised to design the new fire station.[7][8] 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.[7][9] The fire station was described by Fire Call magazine as "the finest fire station in this round world" before construction started.[4][8]

The fire station was built between 1904 and 1906 at a cost of £142,000 (equivalent to £19.3 million in 2024[6]).[7] 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.[8] 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.[8] Other notable Manchester buildings from this era making use of terracotta include the Midland Hotel, the Refuge Assurance Building, the University's The Sackville Street Building (formerly known as UMIST main building) and the Victoria Baths.[9] The building's exterior featured sculptural models by John Jarvis Millson representing the functions of the building such as justice, fire and water.[1][7][10][11][12]

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.[13]

Operation

The building was opened on 27 September 1906 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester James Herbert Thewlis.[1] In addition to the fire station, the building housed a police station on Whitworth Street, an ambulance station on Minshull Street South,[14] a branch of William Deacon's bank at the corner of London Road and Fairfield Street,[15]<[16] 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.[10][17]

A plan graphically illustrating the layout of the uses of the building discussed in the text.
Plan showing the layout of the building.[2]
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.[7][12] 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.[18] 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.[10] 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.[19]

The building featured 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 firemens' 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.[17]

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.[20] The Fire Service was 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.[13]

After the war the Manchester Fire Brigade was privatised and reorganised. London Road Fire Station was restored as the headquarters of the brigade and became the only fire station serving the city centre.[21] A fire service training centre was established in 1948.[22] At about the same time, the ambulance station closed and was converted into the fire brigade's workshops.[13] The control room was modernised in 1952, becoming the first in the country with equipment to record emergency calls.[20][23]

The interior of the building was refurbished in 1955. The exterior had been cleaned every year since the fire station opened, and as a result was still in pristine condition when the building celebrated its Golden Jubilee on 6 October 1956.[24]

Decline

Photograph
A relief panel above London Road entrance, representing fire[11]

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.[25]

The building has been Grade II* listed since 1974,[26] 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.[27][28]

The reorganisation meant the number of appliances was reduced, until only three remained at the station.[29] The control room at London Road closed in 1979, replaced by a single computerised control room at brigade headquarters in Swinton.[27][30]

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.[27][30] The last tenants of the bank, a firm of solicitors, and the fire brigade's workshops, also vacated the building at about the same time.[25]

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.[31] In 1986 the fire service left London Road for its new fire station, London Road Fire Station closed and the building was sold.[2][32][33]

Dereliction and redevelopment

Photograph
The entrance to the Coroner's Court. Above the doorway to the left is Lady Justice. The mirror held by the woman on the right represents truth.[11]

After the sale the building was mainly used for storage whilst planning applications to convert it into a hotel were made in 1986, 1993, and 2001, with varying degrees of success. The Coroner's Court was the last to vacate the premises, in 1998.[2][34][35]

In 2001, the building was placed on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register.[36][37] By 2004 it was in steep decline, and momentum was building for the fire station's owner, Britannia Hotels, to act.[33]

In February 2006, Argent, developers of nearby Piccadilly, published a proposal to lease the building from Britannia Hotels and transform it into a music and arts venue. Under the proposals the building would have contained recording studios, a private club, a music academy, a 100-bed boutique hotel and an archive.[38][39] Manchester City Council backed the plans and refused to rule out a compulsory purchase order (CPO) if the owner did not act to redevelop the building.[40][41]

Britannia Hotels branded Argent's plans "unworkable" and made a counter-proposal to turn the building into a company headquarters, 200-bed hotel, and fire station museum.[40] A planning application was promised by March 2006, but by May none had been made. After meetings between the city council and Britannia Hotels, work was carried out by February 2007 to make the building watertight, and in autumn 2007 a further general proposal was made by Britannia to convert the building into a hotel.[34]

In July 2008, Britannia Hotels appointed Purcell Miller Tritton to draw up plans to convert the building into a hotel[42] but none had been produced by May 2009. Although an application was promised by the end of October 2009, the city council had lost faith in Britannia Hotels' commitment to redevelopment of the site.[43]

The city council was concerned that the state of the fire station was limiting further regeneration of the Piccadilly area, a problem magnified by a proposed government complex dubbed "Whitehall of the North" on the former Mayfield Railway Station site and a reconfiguration of Manchester Piccadilly railway station. The run-down fire station would be the first impression of Manchester for many visitors, therefore the city council set a deadline of July 2009 for further progress on redevelopment.[34][43][44]

Britannia Hotels produced another proposal in July 2009 to convert the fire station into a hotel, featuring a 15-storey tower in the courtyard. Britannia promised a planning application by the end of October 2009, but when the October deadline passed with no application having been submitted the city council's Chief Executive recommended issuing a CPO to allow the building to be redeveloped by another developer.[34][37][45] A subsequent meeting of the city council on 27 January 2010 approved a request by the council executive for up to £5.25 million to cover the costs associated with the fire station's acquisition.[46] Britannia Hotels responded by pledging to make a new proposal by February 2010, rendering the CPO unnecessary.[47][48]

Britannia eventually submitted a planning application to turn the fire station into a 227-bed 4-star hotel, in June 2010.[49][50] In July 2010, Britannia's plan won the support of The Victorian Society, which praised the proposed conversion;[51][52] Manchester City Council responded that its intention was to continue with the CPO.[53][54] Reports suggested that the council was preparing to serve the order on 22 June 2010 if Britannia had not made significant progress in making the building watertight by 11 June 2010.[55] The city council issued a CPO on 5 August 2010.[56][57][58]

Despite Britannia's plans being approved by the Planning and Highways Committee on 16 September 2010, the council continued to pursue a CPO.[59][60] The council started to solicit bids for a development partner for the building in January 2011.[61] However, Britannia's objection to the CPO led to a public inquiry in April 2011.[62][63] On 29 November 2011, the Department for Communities and Local Government confirmed that as a result of the public inquiry, the CPO had been rejected.[64][65]

Despite a guarantee by Britannia at the inquiry to proceed with the development, by February 2012 Britannia had reconsidered its plans. In a letter to English Heritage, Britannia stated the proposed scheme was unsustainable for the foreseeable future. Britannia requested to return discussion to the rejected tower plan. Both English Heritage and the city council expressed their disappointment at the news. The city council made an offer to buy the building at market value.[66][67][68]

Friends of London Road Fire Station

In November 2012, local resident Adam Prince was tired of walking past the building every day with his dogs and seeing the state it was in. He resolved to do something and launched an online petition. The petition quickly gained traction on Twitter and in February 2013 Mr Prince had attracted enough interest to call a public meeting - on the panel were local architect Emma Curtin, Bob Bonner, Stan Edwards, expert on CPO law, a representative of English Heritage and city centre ward councillor Kevin Peel, among others. Held at the Mechanics Institute, 150 people attended and at the end of the meeting the campaign group Friends of London Road Fire Station was founded. It has community trust status.

FoLRFS soon embarked on gaining media coverage designed to both put pressure on Britannia Hotels and persuade the council to attempt a second CPO. The media campaign was highly successful, with local press and radio reporting regularly on the group's activities. Alongside the ongoing online petition, these included fundraising events, public meetings, an online survey to discover locals' views on the Britannia/council stalemate, an art exhibition of artworks of the building and public engagement with its history, and publishing the damning outcome of a Freedom of Information Act request on what the council had done regarding surveying the building and issuing Urgent Works Notices.

On 21 November 2013, Britannia went before the planning committee with its application to extend the existing 2010 planning permissions. The hearing was postponed to 19 December 2013 after committee members decided to inspect the building, a farcical exercise as they couldn't gain entry and were limited to walking round the outside. FoLRFS had not only submitted a lengthy written objection to Britannia's application (and encouraged its individual members to send in their personal ones), chair Emma Curtin also addressed the planning committee for an allotted three minutes. Despite this and Britannia's own written submission that development was "financially unviable" for them, the applications were approved on technical grounds. The stalemate continued.

In September 2014, Manchester City Council announced it was considering a second attempt at a CPO. FoLRFS welcomed this but were concerned about its success - part of the reason the 2010 CPO failed was the council's failure to sufficiently demonstrate a public interest case as it hadn't engaged in a public consultation. On 22 December 2014, the council confirmed it was to pursue the CPO and FoLRFS Chair Emma Curtin was invited to address the planning department meeting that day. She spoke for an unprecedented 20 minutes on the importance of building the public interest case, following which the council stated it would have a meeting with FoLRFS in early 2015.

In the interim, the FoLRFS had received a small grant of £4,000 from Locality's Community Assets in Difficult Ownership (CADO) programme to pay for public outreach work. FoLRFS were among 10 campaign groups selected by CADO for support and the grant enabled them to begin building a public interest case for the future CPO enquiry.

On 30 April 2015, FoLRFS met with Sir Howard Bernstein and Pat Bartoli, head of Manchester City Council's urban regeneration team for the city centre to discuss the state of play for fire station. Sir Howard praised FoLRFS for its campaign, which was also acknowledged in an article in the Guardian the following day. It was announced publicly immediately after the meeting that Britannia Hotels had decided to sell the building.

2015 sale

London Road Fire Station was put on the market on 1 May 2015. The property is being marketed by specialist agent Christie and Co. The sale brochure (PDF) is 30 pages, with many recent photographs indicating the current level of decay in the building. Manchester City Council is currently having the building surveyed - this should be completed by August 2015, by which time Christie and Co expect to have a shortlist of bids. Britannia is said to expecting offers of around £10 million for the fire station, while restoration is expected to cost £20-30 million.

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Bonner 1988, p. 56
  2. ^ a b c d London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 1 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  3. ^ a b Bonner 1986, p. 2
  4. ^ a b c Bonner 1988, p. 51
  5. ^ Bonner 1998, p. 54
  6. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e Parkinson-Bailey2000, p. 134
  8. ^ a b c d London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 3 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  9. ^ a b London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 6 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  10. ^ a b c Bonner 1986, p. 3
  11. ^ a b c Wyke 2004, pp. 92–93
  12. ^ a b Pevsner 2001, pp. 168–169
  13. ^ a b c London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 4 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  14. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 6
  15. ^ London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 2 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  16. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 27
  17. ^ a b Bonner 1986, p. 5
  18. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 9
  19. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 16
  20. ^ a b Bonner 1986, p. 31
  21. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 26
  22. ^ Bonner 1986, p. 42
  23. ^ Bonner 1988, p. 92
  24. ^ Bonner 1988, p. 96
  25. ^ a b London Road Fire Station: Conservation Management Plan – Part 5 (PDF), Purcell Miller Tritton, 2010, retrieved 9 November 2010
  26. ^ Historic England, "Police and Fire Station (1197918)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 9 October 2012
  27. ^ a b c Bonner 1986, p. 44
  28. ^ Bonner 1988, pp. 118–119
  29. ^ Bonner 1988, p. 120
  30. ^ a b Bonner 1988, p. 122
  31. ^ Whitworth Street Conservation Area, Manchester City Council, retrieved 10 January 2010
  32. ^ Bonner 1986, p. IFC
  33. ^ a b Dillon, Martin (23 January 2004), "Alarm bell rings for fire station", Manchester Evening News
  34. ^ a b c d London Road Fire Station (PDF), Manchester City Council, 16 December 2009, retrieved 2 January 2010
  35. ^ Manchester's London Road Fire Station — Hotel Development, Britannia Hotels, archived from the original on 5 August 2010, retrieved 5 August 2010
  36. ^ Heritage At Risk Register 2010 – North West (PDF), English Heritage, 2010, p. 47, retrieved 27 October 2010
  37. ^ a b Council wants fire station back, BBC News, 15 December 2009, retrieved 30 December 2009
  38. ^ London Road Fire Station (PDF), Manchester City Council, 26 July 2006, retrieved 3 January 2010
  39. ^ London Road Fire Station (PDF), Manchester City Council, 15 February 2006, retrieved 3 January 2010
  40. ^ a b Burdett, Jill (11 February 2006), "All-action station", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 30 December 2009
  41. ^ "Fire station's cultural future", Manchester Evening News, 17 January 2006, retrieved 30 December 2009
  42. ^ Henley, Will (1 August 2008), Hotel plan for 'at risk' Manchester fire station, retrieved 3 January 2010
  43. ^ a b Thame, David (28 May 2009), "Burning issue at fire station", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 30 December 2009
  44. ^ London Road Fire Station (PDF), Manchester City Council, 27 May 2009, retrieved 3 January 2010
  45. ^ Binns, Simon (14 December 2009), Fire station owners prepare to repel compulsory purchase, Crain's Manchester Business
  46. ^ Minutes of a meeting of the Council held on 27th January 2010 (PDF), Manchester City Council, 27 January 2010, p. 4, retrieved 6 February 2010
  47. ^ Linton, Deborah (26 January 2010), "£5m pledged to help save fire station", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 6 February 2010
  48. ^ January 2010 Update, Britannia Hotels, archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2010, retrieved 6 February 2010
  49. ^ Binns, Simon (7 June 2010), "Britannia submits plans for Fire Station", Crain's Manchester Business, retrieved 7 June 2010
  50. ^ Kennedy, Maev (20 July 2010), "Manchester fire station granted a reprieve", The Guardian, retrieved 31 July 2010
  51. ^ Victorian Society backs Purcell Miller Tritton's Manchester hotel plan, Building, 30 July 2010, retrieved 2 August 2010
  52. ^ Iconic Edwardian fire station set to become luxury hotel, The Victorian Society, 14 July 2010, retrieved 2 August 2010
  53. ^ Hotel plan submitted for Manchester fire station, BBC News, 8 June 2010, retrieved 8 June 2010
  54. ^ Linton, Deborah (8 June 2010), "Fire station could rise from ashes as a hotel", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 8 June 2010
  55. ^ Binns, Simon (14 June 2010), "Council sets deadline of next Monday to CPO fire station", Crain's Manchester Business {{citation}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  56. ^ Slater, Chris (5 August 2010), "Council in move to force sale of London Road Fire Station", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 5 August 2010
  57. ^ London Road Fire Station (5 August 2010), London Road Fire Station, Manchester City Council, retrieved 5 August 2010
  58. ^ Fahy, Mike Fahy (5 August 2010), Manchester council issues CPO for London Road Fire Station site, The Business Desk, retrieved 5 August 2010
  59. ^ Planning and Highways Committee — Agenda 16 September 2010 (PDF), Manchester City Council, 16 September 2010, retrieved 18 September 2010
  60. ^ London Road fire station CPO unchanged, Place North West, 17 September 2010, retrieved 18 September 2010
  61. ^ Linton, Deborah; Welsh, Pamela (6 January 2011), "Developers preparing bids for London Road fire station hotel plan", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 29 November 2011
  62. ^ Donohue, Simon (10 February 2011), "20 years on, inquiry will finally decide London Road fire station fate", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 29 November 2011
  63. ^ Williams, Jennifer (13 April 2011), We had to buy London Road fire station to save it, Manchester council tells public inquiry, retrieved 29 November 2011
  64. ^ Linton, Deborah (29 November 2011), Manchester council loses £700,000 bid to force sale of London Road Fire Station, retrieved 29 November 2011
  65. ^ Eric Pickles rejects CPO for empty Manchester building, BBC News, 29 November 2011, retrieved 3 December 2011
  66. ^ Linton, Deborah (6 March 2012), "London Road Fire Station owners warn hotel development not 'sustainable' as council prepares buyout plan for landmark building", Manchester Evening News, retrieved 26 June 2012
  67. ^ Schofield, Jonathan (6 March 2012), English Heritage Slams Britannia Hotels, Manchester Confidential, retrieved 26 June 2012
  68. ^ Report for Resolution – London Road Fire Station (PDF), Manchester City Council, 14 March 2012, retrieved 26 June 2012

Bibliography

  • Bonner, Robert (1986), The finest fire station in this round world: a history of London Road Fire Station, Manchester, Manchester: GMC Public Relations Unit
  • Bonner, Robert (1988), Manchester Fire Brigade, Manchester: Archive Publications, ISBN 0-948946-29-6
  • Hartwell, Clare (2001), Manchester, Pevsner Architectural Guides, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, ISBN 978-0-14-071131-8
  • Parkinson-Bailey, John (2000), Manchester: an architectural history, Manchester: Manchester University Press, ISBN 978-0-7190-5606-2
  • Wyke, Terry; Cocks, Harry (2004), Public sculpture of Greater Manchester, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-567-5
Wikimedia Commons has media related to London Road Fire Station.


53°28′36″N 2°13′56″W / 53.47667°N 2.23222°W / 53.47667; -2.23222

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=London_Road_Fire_Station,_Manchester&oldid=662944399"