Towcester Police Station and Magistrates' Court, Towcester, Northamptonshire

Summary

Police Station and Petty Sessions Court, 1936-1937, to the designs of G H Lewin, County Architect.

Description

Police Station and Petty Sessions Court, 1936-1937, to the designs of G H Lewin.

MATERIALS: on the principal elevation, brown brick is laid in Flemish bond with Hornton stone and artificial stone dressings; return and rear elevations are red brick. The roof is tiled and has brick and stone stacks.

PLAN: the building stands on the west side of Watling Street, orientated roughly north to south, set back and in line with the road. The main range occupies a U-shaped footprint, with a central carriageway passage, projections at the rear, and detached ancillary ranges.

The building was originally laid out with the police station and court accommodation to the north of the carriageway, and a parade room to the south. The remainder of the southern half of the ground floor, and the entirety of the first floor, were domestic quarters.

EXTERIOR: a neo-Tudor style building of two storeys and an attic. The principal elevation, facing roughly east, is a symmetrical composition, consisting of a long range with pitched roof, a gabled centrepiece, projecting gabled wings, and stair towers at the junctions. Window openings are lined in artificial stone, with moulded mullions and, to the larger ones, transoms. Windows are metal-framed casements with multiple lights. Hornton stone quoins line the angles, and there is a continuous string course between the storeys. In the centre a gabled bay has a carriageway through to the rear; this is a round arched opening lined in dressed stone with rosettes. Within the carriageway there are doorways on either side; on the left, a plain opening with double doors leads into the former parade room; on the right, the opening, formerly to the magistrates’ court entrance hall, is lined with dressed stone and has a massive artificial stone lintel; the doorway has been blocked and a window inserted. Above the carriageway opening is a four-light window, and above that, a plaque inscribed ‘AD / 1937’. This central gable is flanked by two taller, slightly projecting gables, with five-light mullioned and transomed windows to the ground and first floors, and two-light windows to the attic. The elevation of the main range to the left of the carriageway, originally the pair of married constables’ houses, has two doorways with basket-arched heads and solid plank doors. These stand within moulded architraves and have sidelights and over-lights with mullions and transoms. There are two sets of five-light windows above. To the right of the carriageway there is a doorway with a flat-arched shaped lintel, sidelights and a hoodmould, originally the entrance to the inspector’s flat. A large, seven-light window lights the former interview rooms to the right. The first floor, originally for domestic use, has windows echoing the rhythm of the ground floor. The projecting wings have five-light windows to the gables. At the junction between the main range and each wing there is a canted stair tower with a doorway on the ground floor and glazing above. Rafter feet project at the eaves, and stout chimneystacks rise from the apex of the roof.

The left-hand gable has a modern extension on its left return providing an accessible entrance to the police station.

The rear elevation is a less formal and more complex composition, with various single- and two-storey projections forming a varied building line. Windows on this elevation are also multiple-light casements, but are generally in brick openings with plainer dressed stone sills, lintels, mullions and transoms. On the far left (north) a single-storey, flat-roofed block contains the cells. Glass block glazing has replaced the original windows, and the second window is an insertion, formerly an exercise yard adapted to form an additional cell. The steeply pitched gable to the courtroom projects above, and has a large window. To the right are two two-storey ranges with hipped roofs and varied glazing, along with a single-storey flat-roofed block; the latter formed a balcony to the first-floor single constables’ rooms. To the right of the carriageway arch a stair to the roof projects and, with the bicycle shed, forms a division between the rear yards. Further right, a pair of hipped projecting ranges are the rear elevations of the married constables’ houses; single-storey coal sheds, now demolished, were located to create a lobby to their back doors, one of which has been blocked.

Architectural treatment is continued on the southern return elevation, formerly to the superintendent’s house. Also an irregular composition, with varied window openings and an external stack, the elevation sees the junction between the brown and red brick of the front and rear of the building. The northern return elevation has the blind boundary wall to a former internal yard at ground floor level. On the upper floor are the large windows lighting the courtroom and ancillary rooms.

INTERIOR: internally, all of the domestic accommodation has been turned to office use, involving the insertions of doorways and the removal of fireplaces, kitchens, bathrooms, and some staircases. Doors, with one-over-three panels, generally survive, along with their moulded architraves; inserted openings are evident by their plainer treatment. Occasional built-in cupboards survive, along with areas of parquet flooring. The former parade room has been adapted to an office, and has a large lobby partitioned off at the carriageway entrance. The room retains some dado matchboarding, timber storage cupboards and cast iron radiators. The plan form of the superintendent’s house, at the southern end of the building, survives better along with the stair, with stick balusters and a moulded handrail.

North of the carriageway the former police station and ancillary rooms to the magistrates’ court have been reconfigured, but retain various architectural features and treatments that indicate the higher status of this part of the building. Large archways lined in dressed stone indicate the location of key routes and entrances, and the internal walls of the key spaces are in exposed brick, some with oak-panelling to the lower part. The former main entrance hall, now subdivided, has high-level windows with purple and yellow leaded glazing. Doors are oak plank in moulded oak architraves. The courtroom is a double-height space with high-level glazing on two walls. The ceiling is panelled with timber ribs and has deep cross beams. There is a step up to the dais; the bench is modern. A small glazed dock has been formed in one corner, at the doorway leading towards the cells. The cells retain their heavy metal doors with a lightbulb recess to one side, and have a bench and WC. The former women’s cell, to the north, has a screen in front of the WC. The principal stair survives; it is a dog leg with a wide, solid central balustrade with shaped stone capping.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: dwarf walls enclose the forecourt. These are brick with chamfered coping stones, and stout piers at the angles and entrances. There are two wrought iron lampstands with a glazed light box inscribed ‘police’.

The rear yard is enclosed by higher walls around the boundary. There are two detached ranges at rear: a cycle shed and four-car garage with carwash forecourt; and a mortuary. The cycle shed and garage is a rectangular range with a pitched tiled roof, hipped on the inward-facing end. The northern elevation has a pair of wide vehicle openings beneath a concrete lintel; with sliding, half-glazed timber doors on tracks.

The former mortuary is a small rectangular range with a pitched roof, built onto the western boundary wall. Entrance is through a doorway on the otherwise blind south gable end, which has high upstands. There are three pairs of windows in the east elevation.

History

Towcester Police Station and Magistrate’s Court was built in 1936-1937 to the designs of G H Lewin.

From the mid-C19 until the 1960s two police forces operated in Northamptonshire: the Borough and County forces. The original police station in Towcester was built for the County Constabulary, which was formed in 1840 under the provisions of the County Police Act of 1839, and came under the jurisdiction of the County Quarter Sessions. Towcester was one of seven petty session divisions in the county, and its first police station was built in 1852. This building was replaced in the 1930s by a much larger new facility which provided a police station with a parade room, various interview and charge rooms and five cells; a Petty Sessions Court and ancillary rooms; residential quarters for a superintendent, two married constables, an inspector, and five single constables; plus a garage and bike shed, and mortuary.

Changes to the operation and structure of the police force have meant areas of the building, such as the residential accommodation have become redundant. These areas have been adapted to form general offices and locker rooms, involving the insertion of doorways and corridors through the flats and houses, and the removal of some stairs. Fireplaces have all been removed. The ancillary rooms and circulation routes around the court have also undergone some reconfiguration, and the northern yard has been infilled to form additional offices. The magistrates’ court went out of use in the early C21.

The building was designed by George Henry Lewin, FRIBA, (b.1874) who was the County Architect for Northamptonshire. He is known to have designed two buildings that are listed at Grade II: Irthlingborough Casual Wards, also in Northamptonshire, and Bournville Baths, Birmingham.

Reasons for Listing

The former Police Station and Court, 1936-1937, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a restrained yet striking principal elevation, symmetrically composed with a central archway, projecting wings and stair towers, and with variation and simplicity in the elevation belying the complexity of the plan within;
* robust and well-constructed using good quality materials and with careful detailing;
* designed to project a social message, adopting associations of tradition, authority and security through its form and historicist styling;
* retaining good-quality architectural treatment and features of note within the former police station and court;
* a building complex with several ancillary structures, the planning and interrelationship of which remains legible and which illustrates the provisions for a police station of the period.

Historic interest:

* a good illustration of an interwar provincial Police Station and Petty Sessions Court;
* the authorship of the building by G H Lewin, the County Architect, adds to the its interest.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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