Durning Road Fire & Police Station

In December 2008, Heritage Works was commissioned by 2020 Liverpool to undertake a feasibility study, to explore the potential for repair and re-use of the derelict grade 2 listed Fire Station on Durning Road, Edge Hill, Liverpool, together with the adjacent public house The Shipperies. The two buildings are situated in a Housing Renewal area, and the study explored how their renovation could complement the local redevelopment. The report was completed in February 2009.

Executive Summary, Durning Road Fire & Police Station Feasibility Study, May 2009 [PDF 630Kb]

The Study

The key aim of the study was to explore the cost of undertaking the conservation-led repair of the Durning Road Fire & Police Station and its conversion to economically viable use.

Initially, the team developed an understanding of the Fire Station building with regard to its:

history - its original form and purpose and how these have altered through time;
significance in terms of age, use, construction, style, rarity and quality;
vulnerability and why it is deemed to be 'at risk';
condition and the causes for the decay and structural failure.

The study also sought to develop an understanding of the community's aspirations for the property, and the expectations of other stakeholders: the City Council Housing Market Renewal team, selected developer Bellway, the conservation officer, planning authority and English Heritage.

This research enabled the team to start to develop a conservation philosophy for the protection of the Fire & Police Station (and the adjacent Shipperies public house), as a precursor to further assessment of significance and the preparation of a conservation management plan.

The team then undertook an assessment of the buildings' suitability for re-use and possible development options, with the aim of identifying one preferred option. Alternatives included office, residential and community schemes, with differing amounts of complementary new-building to the rear. Each scheme has been diagrammatically illustrated with a preliminary budget cost plan based on outline specification information.

The study went on to explore how the preferred option might be funded and delivered. As a result of this, the Council has decided that there is a viable way forward and will undertake emergency works to protect the Fire Station as soon as practicable.

Vesting of property in the immediate vicinity is expected to start in April, with transfer of the ownership of the Fire Station and Shipperies to Liverpool City Council taking place in July/August 2009.

Context

Both of the buildings are located within the boundary of the Edge Hill phase 2 housing market renewal programme and are subject to the area-wide compulsory purchase order. The area immediately to the rear of the Fire Station was a dense grid of Victorian two-storey terraced houses, currently in the process of demolition. In the clearance area, Bellway Homes' Edge Hill development will build 300 new low-energy, low-carbon, 2- and 3-bedroom family homes, with gardens and parking facilities.

Durning Road Fire Station

Description

The Durning Road Fire Station is a grade 2 listed late-Victorian building in crenulated 'Gothick' style. A two-storey building, built in 1883-84, it was originally constructed with two large rooms on the ground floor (engine room and parade room), and two above (providing residential accommodation). It has a slated hipped roof, with two very tall, ornamented chimneystacks. Each end of the eaves is decorated with a carved sandstone beast.

The front elevation and south end gable are constructed in sandstone ashlar. A broad band crosses the front elevation below the first floor windows, bearing the raised stone letters 'POLICE FIRE STATION'. The windows are of 'Gothick' style, with quatrefoil upper lights above side-hung timber casement windows. Two large 'Gothick'-arch doorways take up half of the ground floor elevation, now with metal shutters and temporary boarding where once were huge timber gates

The building has been extended several times, with outriggers into the yard and a 1950s engine room extension with accommodation over, on the south side. Sometime in the last thirty years the yard was completely roofed over to provide garaging space for a car mechanic's business.

History

In the 19th century, the Edge Hill district of Liverpool was developed, beginning with large houses for Liverpool's wealthy merchants escaping the noise and smoke of the city. By 1885, the Ordnance Survey map shows that the whole area had been built up into a dense grid of terraced housing, mostly rented to railway and dockworkers. Fires were a serious problem in 19th century Liverpool, particularly among the closely packed terraced houses.

Plans for a Fire and Police Station on Durning Road were drawn up by Thomas Shelmerdine, Liverpool's prolific Borough Surveyor, who was responsible for designing many of the city's libraries. Accommodation included a parade room, toilets, an engine room and first floor flat (complete with fireman's pole) for the fire officer. The station was completed in 1884.

In its earliest days, the Station housed a fire-fighting hand cart and three Fire Policemen patrolled the Kensington area. By 1911, the Station made use of a horse-drawn fire appliance, using horses provided from local stables when needed. In 1924, the Station was provided with a motorised fire engine.

During the Second World War, the first floor flat was converted into recreation and sleeping area for 12 fireman. The post-war period saw an expansion and modernisation of Liverpool's fire stations, with services moving to larger premises. The station was closed in 1976.

The building was listed in 1975 and used as a garage and then a tyre-fitting company. However, the property has remained empty since 2003 and has suffered substantial deterioration as a result of fires in 2004 and 2008.

The Shipperies

The Shipperies public house was probably constructed a year or so before the Fire Station, but in a very different Victorian style. The pub was named after the International Exhibition of Navigation, Travelling, Commerce and Manufacture Exhibition - locally known as the Shipperies Exhibition - held in Liverpool in 1886 at the nearby Exhibition Hall in Edge Lane, overlooking Wavertree Park.

This three storey building with steeply pitched roof, front gables and dormer windows, is built in bands of red and yellow pressed brick. The front and side elevations are decorated with stone-and terracotta dressed windows, with large sliding sash windows, and fretted bargeboards.

The main entrance to the Shipperies is on Durning Road, ornamented with a small first floor balcony feature and oriel window. At the street corner however, an angled doorway sits beneath a heavily moulded pendentive cantilever carrying the corner of the building and looking, no doubt intentionally, something like the prow of a ship.

The upper floors provide seven letting bedrooms, which may previously have been hotel rooms, on the second floor, over a first floor apartment for the publican. The pub was brought into brewery ownership early in the twentieth century, and later became a freehouse. The Shipperies operated as a public house until recently, when it was purchased by Liverpool City Council.

We gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Roger Hull from Liverpool Record Office in researching the history of The Shipperies, and Simon Ryan of Merseyside Fire Service for provision of historical images of the Fire Station.