page_title: London Road Fire Station, Manchester
section_title: Operation
hierarchical_section_title: London Road Fire Station, Manchester / Operation
caption_attribution_description: English: Coroner's court at London Road Fire Station, Manchester
context_page_description: London Road Fire Station is a former fire station in Manchester, England. It was opened in 1906, 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 and was built by J. Gerrard and Sons of Swinton. 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 eighty 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.
context_section_description: The building was opened on 27 September 1906 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester James Herbert Thewlis. In addition to the fire station, it housed a police station on Whitworth Street, an ambulance station on Minshull Street South, a branch of Williams Deacon's Bank at the corner of London Road and Fairfield Street, 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.
  The fire station contained flats for 32 firemen and their families and 6 single firemen. 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. 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. The fire station was also designed with foresight; the appliance bays were made wide enough to take motorised fire appliances. The station's first motorised fire appliance arrived in 1911, five years after it opened.
  The building has a 130-foot (40 m) hose tower 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.
  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. 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.
  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. A fire service training centre was established in 1948. At about the same time, the ambulance station closed and was converted into the fire brigade's workshops. The control room was modernised in 1952, becoming the first in the country with equipment to record emergency calls.
  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.
caption: The station's coroner's court
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