The former Manchester Square Fire Station, 1 Chiltern Street, Marylebone, London W1

From the website of the London Fire Brigade:

“Before the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed in 1865, London’s firefighters weren’t public servants – they were employed by insurance companies. Learn more more about the early fire brigades and the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE).

Then, in 1861, everything changed. A huge fire broke out at Cotton’s Wharf, which took two weeks to extinguish – causing millions of pounds of damage. The Tooley Street Fire saw insurance companies ask parliament to relieve them of their responsibilities.

The Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) was formed in 1866 after insurance companies told the government they were unwilling to be responsible for London’s fire protection due to escalating compensation costs.

The Metropolitan Police were originally chosen to take control of the MFB but it was decided this would be too complicated and the Metropolitan Board of Works was given the responsibility.

The headquarters for the MFB was at Southwark Training Centre and the Chief Officer lived in in the adjoining building, Winchester House.

Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw became Chief Officer of the MFB and changed it significantly.

He established a new rank system; introduced a new uniform; built new fire stations and introduced advanced technology to improve the service.

Massey Shaw brought in steam fire engines that could pump, on average, 300 gallons of water a minute. They were well equipped for putting out fires – as long as the boilers were kept warm enough to raise the steam.

Horses were used to pull the engines and they were housed at the station with the firefighters. Sloping floors in fire stations allowed engines to move out more easily – this was called ‘on the run’, a term still used today.

In 1866, Chief Fire Officer Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw introduced a new uniform consisting of a blue double-breasted serge tunic and trousers.

The firefighter would also wear a number on their tunic. This number represented a person’s rank and the number decreased as their seniority increased.

Each firefighter would have carried an axe and a hose spanner.

He also designed our iconic brass helmets.

https://www.visitcobh.com/famous-visitors/sir-eyre-massey-shaw/ “In his work with the Fire Engine Establishment and later the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Shaw became most concerned with the fire safety of theatres. Theatres were frequent sources of fire, with combustible scenery covered in oil paints in close proximity to naked flame gas lamps.
Such was his concern, that in 1876, he published the book Fires in Theatres, setting out some of the risks and methods specific to theatres. He was particularly concerned with the lack of regulation and control in the sector.
In 1887, the devastating Exeter Theatre Royal fire claimed the lives of 186 people, and Shaw was appointed to conduct a parliamentary inquiry (with a jury) and to report back. The jury of 21 returned a verdict of accidental death.
Shaw submitted his report to the government on 29 September 1887, and in it he placed the blame firmly with the architect, Phipps. Phipps defended himself from the blame, deflecting to the fact that a number of changes had been made during construction from the designs that he proposed.
This proved to be the catalyst for action, and gradually regulations were tightened. Shaw was a well-known socialite and a personal friend of the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII). A firefighting outfit was always kept ready at Charing Cross Fire Station in case the Royal heir chose to firefight.
Shaw is best remembered today as the “Captain Shaw” to whom the Fairy Queen in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe addresses herself, “… In that we gain/A Captain Shaw!/(Aside.)Oh, Captain Shaw!/Type of true love kept under!/Could thy Brigade/With cold cascade/Quench my great love, I wonder!” a reference to Shaw’s popularity with certain aristocratic ladies of the town. Shaw was present in the stalls at the first night of Iolanthe in 1882, and Alice Barnett, playing the Fairy Queen, addressed herself directly to him. Legend has it that he stood up and took a bow. In 1886 Shaw was named in an *adultery lawsuit involving Lady Colin Campbell who was sitting next to Shaw at the Iolanthe premiere. *Proceedings included a visit by the jury to the Campbells’ London home to verify the butler’s testimony about witnessing through a keyhole Lady Colin’s meetings with other men. With her divorce denied, the couple remained married until Lord Colin’s death in 1895 of his “loathsome disease”. In Great Britain, mutoscopes became known as “What the Butler Saw” machines in reference to the case.”(Wikipedia)

After the Metropolitan Board of Works was disbanded in 1889, the London County Council (LCC) was formed as the local government body for the County of London.

It also took over the responsibility for MFB operations, and in 1904 the name was changed to London Fire Brigade.”

From Wikipedia:

“Robert Pearsall (3 March 1852 – 1929) was an English architect. He was architect to the London Fire Brigade, for whom he designed several notable fire stations, seven of which are Grade II listed buildings. His work included Woolwich Fire Station, built in 1887, and extensions to Clerkenwell’s 1872 station, which was London’s oldest operational fire station before both stations were among ten closed on 9 January 2014.

He was appointed architect in the Fire Brigade Office, Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW, later London County Council) in 1879, and was initially supervised by Alfred Mott. After 1889, Pearsall headed the new Fire Brigade Section of the London County Council. His notable buildings include several fire stations now Grade II listed including:

Tooley Street (1878–79; now Brigade Bar and Bistro)
West Norwood Fire Station (1881; now the South London Theatre)
164 Bishopsgate (1885; now a supermarket)
Woolwich Fire Station (1887)
Manchester Square Fire Station (1889; now a hotel)
New Cross Fire Station (1893–94)
Fulham Fire Station (1895–96), at 685 Fulham Road, Fulham

Pearsall also designed London fire stations in Stoke Newington (now The Old Fire Station, a community building) and Rosebery Avenue in Clerkenwell (Pearsall designed its extension in 1895–97; the original building was some 25 years older, making it London’s oldest operational station when it closed on 9 January 2014).

Pearsall also designed now-demolished London fire stations in Holborn, Kentish Town, Shadwell, North Kensington, and Camden Town.
In 1873, Pearsall designed three different railway sleeping cars for the American William d’Alton Mann. The first of the cars manufactured was used to convey the newly wed Alfred, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and his bride from St Petersburg to Flushing.
Pearsall designed the chancel and transepts added to Plaxtol Church in Kent in 1894.
Pearsall was also a life member of the British Museum, and served on “The Committee for the Survey of the Memorials of Greater London”.”

From the Historic England entry:

“Fire station. Dated 1889, early design by the L.C.C. Architect’s Department, in the Vulliamy manner.

Red brick with stone dressings; tiled roof. Free Tudor-Gothic style. 3 storey and attic, 3-window wide left hand part with 2-window wide 4-storey and gabled attic part slightly advanced to right. The stone faced ground floor has 3 altered engine doors to left hand part, flanked by gabled buttress-piers; 2 ground floor 4-light mullioned-transomed windows to right hand part, with drip mould over, the left hand window incorporating doorway, articulated by gabled buttress piers with pseudo-crenellated parapet between. 3-light mullioned-transomed windows to upper floors, hipped roof dormers over left hand part, the 3rd floor pair in right hand gable set in ogee arched recess with flanking pinnacled shafts rising from helmeted firemen head corbels, carved date panel and foliage enrichments. South return of 4 irregular bays with elaborated, stepped rib chimney stack against panel traceried gable end and stone oriel to 1st floor by corner. Screen wall to yard returns back to link with 2nd engine house with large gambrel tiled roof with overhanging eaves, the doors framed by brick piers rising to stone ogee domed finials.”

https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/M442447/Manchester-Square-Fire-Station-Marylebone-London