Former London Fire Brigade HQ — Opened by a King

The Former London Fire Brigade HQ on the Albert Embankment in London is a 1937 Art Deco building that housed the capital's central firefighting command during the Blitz. Opened by King George VI on July 21, 1937, the Portland stone structure designed by E. P. Wheeler and G. Weald features facade reliefs by Gilbert Bayes and Stanley Nicholson Babb, alongside a bomb-proof underground control room constructed in April 1940.

London · from the walk “Bones, Gardens & Gates: The Lambeth Riverside” · audio ~4 min · Generated

8 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SD

Who designed the Former London Fire Brigade HQ on London's Albert Embankment?

Take a look at this striking building standing before you on the Albert Embankment. Historic England describes it as a streamlined Moderne building that upholds the Arts and Crafts ideal of collaboration between architecture and sculpture. But there's far more to this place than meets the eye.......... This was the new headquarters of the London Fire Brigade, opened with great fanfare on Wednesday the twenty-first of July, nineteen thirty-seven, by King George the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth. One hundred and fifty firefighters paraded for royal inspection alongside Chief Officer Major Morris and a host of dignitaries, while the L-F-B Band provided musical accompaniment. Quite the spectacle on the south bank of the Thames!......... The building was designed by London County Council architects E. P. Wheeler and G. Weald, built using Portland stone and light-coloured brick. Now, look closely at the facade. Do you see those sculpted reliefs? They were created by the distinguished sculptors Stanley Nicholson Babb and Gilbert Bayes... and they include firefighters in their most modern nineteen thirty-seven uniforms alongside mythical imagery, including Phoebus the sun god in his chariot, with the sun's rays behind him, detailed in Gold mosaic tiles. Gilbert Bayes, by the way, is the same artist who created the famous Queen of Time clock above the entrance to Selfridges on Oxford Street.......... But here's where the story gets darker... and more heroic. After London suffered bombing raids during the First World War, this headquarters was specifically designed to withstand attack from the air. And that foresight proved Critical. In April nineteen forty, an underground control room was completed beneath this very building... constructed to withstand a direct hit from a high-explosive bomb and also to render ineffective a poison gas attack. It had its own reserve generator, forced ventilation, and was sealed by watertight doors.......... And that strange obelisk you might spot nearby? That was the snorkel tower, designed to pierce any debris from a collapsing building, providing both ventilation and an emergency escape route for the officers working below.......... It was from Here that the capital's entire firefighting operation was run during the Second World War. Just imagine... Major Jackson and a small band of senior officers, deep underground, watching deployment on enormous wall maps as London burned above them during the Blitz.......... Inside, there's something most people never see. A Memorial Hall... a beautiful, reflective space commemorating firefighters and Brigade staff who lost their lives on duty. It contains two memorials by Gilbert Bayes... one depicting an eighteenth-century firefighting scene with firefighters in distinctive leather hats, with framed illuminated manuscripts hidden behind bronze doors to keep their colours fresh.......... Now, remarkably, after years away, the London Fire Brigade is planning to move back here from its Southwark base, returning to the Art Deco building where it was based for seventy years. A full circle... back to the big house on the river.

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