The London Fire Brigade Headquarters on the Albert Embankment was opened on the 21 July 1937 by King George VI. The building, designed by the London County Council architects, E.P. Wheeler FRIBA and assistant architect, G. Weald FRIBA, was built to replace the old headquarters’ building in Southwark.
The large site is in two sections on either side of Lambeth High Street. The eight-storey building on the Albert Embankment is built using Portland stone and light-coloured brick. On the ground floor are both the Lambeth and Lambeth River Fire Stations together with a gym. For the first floor the architects designed living quarters and recreation rooms for on-duty fire crews, together with a London-wide control room. The upper storeys also contained the main administrative offices for the brigade and numerous flats for fire officers. Behind this building is a large drill yard complete with a 100-foot drill tower with built-in hose-drying facilities and a separate bandstand!
Across Lambeth High Street is the workshop block which is built around a quadrangle. Here are garages and repair shops, stores, various workshops and a training school, complete with kitchens and more living quarters. The site and the buildings cost the London Fire Brigade just £390,000 and included two roof gardens.
