John Dixon Butler

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John Dixon Butler

RA FRIBA
John Dixon Butler.jpg
Dixon Butler, pictured in The Builder in 1920
BornDecember 1860
Died27 October 1920
Alma materUniversity College London
Architectural Association
OccupationArchitect
PracticeSurveyor to the Metropolitan Police 1895–1920

John Dixon Butler RA, FRIBA (December 1860[1] – 27 October 1920) was a British architect and the Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police in London, between 1895 until his death. He completed some 200 buildings during his career, mostly for the police, including ten courts; about 58 of his buildings survive. Historic England have included around 25 of these buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales.

Dixon Butler was born in London and studied architecture under Richard Norman Shaw, with whom he worked on designs for the Metropolitan Police's Scotland Yard and Canon Row Police Station headquarters on London's Embankment. The collaboration helped Dixon Butler form a professional relationship with the Metropolitan Police, which became established when he took over from his father as the force's surveyor. Elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1906, Dixon Butler retired to Surrey where he died in 1920. Historic England describe him as "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects".

Early life[]

Dixon Butler was born in December 1860[1] at 2 Seymour Terrace (now Walk) in Kensington, London.[2] He was the only son and the second of two children to John Butler (1828–1900), an architect, and his wife, Hannah née Deavin.[3] Dixon Butler studied at University College London and then the Architectural Association, before being articled to his father, from whom he learnt about the design and planning of police-related buildings.[4]

Dixon Butler worked under Richard Norman Shaw in the 1880s and assisted him on the designs for Scotland Yard.[5] The position was reversed at Canon Row on London's Embankment, where Dixon Butler was the lead architect and Norman Shaw acted as consultant.[6] Dixon Butler's father, John, had been the appointed Surveyor for the Metropolitan Police in 1881. Upon his retirement in 1895,[7] Dixon Butler succeeded him, a role he retained until his death.[a][4]

Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police[]

The Metropolitan Police Force Surveyorship was established in 1842[b][c][10] and the force's first purpose built station was built at Bow Street, erected two years after Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act of 1829. There was a boom in police stations during the 1880s following the political unrest of that decade and high-profile events such as the Whitechapel Murders.[13] Cherry, O'Brien and Pevsner, in their London: East volume of the Buildings of England series, record Dixon Butler's "unique" riverside police stations for the Thames River Police, founded in 1798 to combat piracy,[14] including his station at Wapping which now houses the Thames River Police Museum.[15][16]

Under Dixon Butler, after 1895, police stations in London became more domesticated, internally, and an effort was made to make them more approachable to the public, including their relocation into more public areas. After a violent demonstration outside the station in Bow Street, the Metropolitan Police decided to have separate entrances at their stations, one for constables and another for public use, and to have officers live within the stations, under the supervision of senior colleagues. Extra provisions for the care of prisoners were also made, including the introduction of ablution areas and exercise yards.[13] Externally, Dixon Butler was careful to design them in a similar style to the surrounding, newly developed suburban areas in which they served.[14]

His designs included features which give his buildings strong municipal accents, such as iron railings and lintels inscribed "Police" or "Police Station", set in stone dressings, and his frequent use of elaborate consoles to doors and windows.[17] These elements give his designs their architectural quality[13] creating a "characteristic type which can be recognised all over London".[17] Historic England describes him as "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects".[4]

Buildings[]

Tower Bridge Magistrates' Court and Police Station, now the Dixon Hotel. Named in honour of Dixon Butler, Cherry and Pevsner call it "quite spectacular of its date".[18]

Dixon Butler completed around 200 buildings during his career, nearly all police stations,[19] and around 10 courthouses;[20] around 58 buildings survive.[19]

Dixon Butler designed Northwood Police Station in the Old English style, sensitive to the fact that at that time, Northwood was semi-rural, whilst acknowledging the proximity to London, through its station on the London Underground Metropolitan line.[13] He designed similar police stations at Pinner and at Kew. Pinner Police Station, designed in 1897, was perhaps the most domesticated of all his stations, and was equipped with living quarters for a married sergeant and his family, including two bedrooms, a living room, a scullery and a larder. Elsewhere, the building had a lobby, waiting room, inspector's office, charge room, parade room, three cells, a stable for two horses and an attached ambulance shed.[3]

A number have been converted to other uses, including three, Tower Bridge Magistrates Court and Police Station (now The Dixon),[19] Marlborough Street Magistrates Court (now The Courthouse Hotel)[21] and Shoreditch Magistrates Court and Police Station (now The Courthouse, Shoreditch),[22] which have been converted to hotels. Historic England have included 32 of these buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales.[4] All are listed Grade II, with the exception of Canon Row Police Station which is given the higher grading of II*.[23]

Known existing buildings[]

Former Canon Row Police Station, Victoria Embankment
Former Marlborough Street Magistrates Court, now the Courthouse Hotel
  • 1887–90 - Former New Scotland Yard, Norman Shaw North Building (assisting Richard Norman Shaw).[24]
  • 1888–89 - Former Cavendish Road Police station (previously known as 'Balham Police Station').[25][26]
  • 1891 - Former police station, 360 Forest Road, Walthamstow[27] (sold for redevelopment in 2020)[28]
  • 1896–98 - Former New Scotland Yard, Norman Shaw South Building (assisting Richard Norman Shaw).[29]
  • 1897 – Pinner Police Station.[3]
  • 1898 – Camberwell Police Station.[30]
  • 1898–1902 – Canon Row Police Station.[31]
  • 1900–02 – Hyde Park Police Station.[32]
  • 1901 - Police Station, Rochester Row[33]
  • 1903 – Old Street Police Station and adjoining Court House, Hackney.[34]
  • 1903 – Bow Road Police Station, Tower Hamlets.[35]
  • 1903–04 - Former Magistrate's Court, 69 Rochester Row[36]
  • 1904 – Newham Police Station.[37]
  • 1904 – Gates and Piers to entrance to Derby Gate[38]
  • 1904 – Lower Clapton Police Station.[39]
  • 1904 – North Woolwich Police Station, Albert Road.[40]
  • 1904 - Hackney Police Station, Lower Clapton Road.[41] (closed 2013)[42]
  • 1906 – Ilford Hill Police Station, Ilford.[43]
  • 1906 – Clerkenwell Magistrates Court.[44]
  • 1906 – Shoreditch Magistrates Court and Police Station.[45]
  • 1906 – Tower Bridge Magistrates Court and adjoining Police Station.[46]
  • 1907 – Wapping Police Station.[47]
  • 1908 – Sutton Police Station.[48]
  • 1908–1909 - Wealdstone Police Station.[49]
  • 1909 – Greenwich Magistrates Court.[50]
  • 1909–10 – Police Section House, Beak Street, Soho.[51][52]
  • 1910 – Greenwich Police Station.[53]
  • 1910 – Ripple Road Police Station, Barking.[54][55]
  • 1911 – Harrow Road Police Station.[56]
  • 1912 – Barking Road Police Station, Plaistow.[57]
  • 1912 – Hampstead Police Station, court house.[4]
  • 1912 – Woolwich Magistrates Court.[58]
  • 1912–13 - No. 19-21 Great Marlborough Street, Westminster (court and police station)[59]
  • 1913–16 – Marlborough Street Magistrates Court.[60][61]
  • 1914 – West London Magistrates Court, 181 Talgarth Road, Hammersmith[62]
  • 1917 – Former police station, 458 Bethnal Green Road (facade and enlargements to an existing building designed by his father, John Butler, in 1892).[8]
  • 1920–25 - Former Police Station and Magistrates Court, Aylward Street and East Arbour Street, Mile End - now flats. Designed by Dixon Butler, who died early on into the project; finished by his successor, Gilbert MacKenzie Trench.[63]

Personal life and death[]

In his spare time Dixon Butler was actively engaged in amateur dramatics. In an April 1890 edition of Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, he is shown as being part of the Selwood Operatic Company, and performing in a small concert in aid of St James's Church, Croydon.[64] Five years later, according to The Stage he, along with a group of other architects, including George Baron Carvill, took part in a production of King Arthur,[d] at the London Scottish Reserves HQ in Buckingham Gate. The play was advertised as being "a burlesque written for architects by architects" and featured an architectural-themed twist to its plot, inasmuch that the part of the King (played by Dixon Butler) was a district surveyor who had, under his care, three articled pupils, Sirs Lancelot (Albert L. Harris) Mordred (Herbert Phillips Fletcher, brother to Banister Fletcher) and Percival (C.V Cable).[66]

Like his father, Dixon Butler was an active Freemason and became a member of the Baldwin Lodge in Dalton-in-Furness on 11 June 1890;[67] five years later, he was initiated at the Mount Moriah Lodge, Tower Hill.[68] He married Hannah Frazer (1854–1924)[69] in March 1901;[70] they had no children.[71] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1906.[4]

Dixon Butler retired to Molesey, Surrey, where he died on 27 October 1920. He is interred in the churchyard of St John's in Woking.[72] His former Tower Bridge Police Station and Court, now a hotel, is named The Dixon in commemoration of his life and works.[73]

Notes[]

  1. ^ The police station on Bethnal Green Road in Tower Hamlets in East London, is a rare example of both Dixon Butler's work and that of his father. John Butler designed the original station in 1892 and it was extended and refaced by his son in 1917.[8] Another example is the North Building at Scotland Yard where R. Norman Shaw first worked up a preliminary design by John Butler, and subsequently completed the building with assistance from Dixon Butler.[9]
  2. ^ The post of Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police has been held by only nine people since its establishment in 1842, with five of the surveyors serving for terms of over twenty years; Charles Reeves (1842–1866), John Dixon Butler (1895–1920), Gilbert Mackenzie Trench (1921–1947), J. Innes Elliot (1947–1974) and T. Lawrence from 1988.[10]
  3. ^ Gilbert Mackenzie Trench was the designer of the Metropolitan Police box which was subsequently the inspiration for the TARDIS.[11][12]
  4. ^ King Arthur (also King Arthur: A Drama in a Prologue and Four Acts) was a play by Joseph Comyns Carr, produced by Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre, London, in 1895.[65]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  2. ^ Census of 1861: Class: RG 9; Piece: 22; Folio: 10; Page: 12; GSU roll: 542558
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c Historic England. "Pinner Police Station including stable block, boundary wall, gate pier and fences, bollards and police lamps (Grade II) (1411163)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Historic England. "Former Police Station and Courthouse, including stable and harness room, railings and lamps (Grade II) (1130397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  5. ^ Saint 2010, pp. 291–295.
  6. ^ "John Dixon Butler (1861—1920)". Oxford Reference. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  7. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, xv.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 578.
  9. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 248.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b Cherry & Pevsner 2002b, p. 21.
  11. ^ Historic England. "Metropolitan Police Box at National Tramway Museum (1109166)". National Heritage List for England.
  12. ^ Roberts, Andrew (1 October 2019). "What Was The London Police Box". The Oldie.
  13. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Historic England. "Police Station (Grade II) (1393152)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  14. ^ Jump up to: a b Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 73.
  15. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 507.
  16. ^ "Thames Police – The Museum". www.thamespolicemuseum.org.uk. Thames Police. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  17. ^ Jump up to: a b Cherry & Pevsner 2002c, p. 52.
  18. ^ Cherry & Pevsner 2002a, p. 602.
  19. ^ Jump up to: a b c O’Flaherty, Mark C. (27 March 2019). "Hotel Hit Squad: A hotel in a former magistrate's court? The Dixon is judged to be a guilty pleasure, but the witticisms are criminal". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  20. ^ Graya: A Magazine for Members of Gray's Inn, Issue 111, published 2000, p. 88.
  21. ^ Valentine, Hannah (27 November 2018). "The Courthouse Hotel: Law and Luxury comes to Soho". Glass Magazine.
  22. ^ "A Contemporary Design Hotel with History", Courthouse Hotel, accessed 13 June 2021.
  23. ^ "Dixon Butler Search". Historic England. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  24. ^ Historic England. "Former New Scotland Yard, Norman Shaw North Building (Grade II) (1274511)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  25. ^ The Builder. 1890.
  26. ^ "Construction of Balham and Cavendish Road Police Station (1888/89)". www.met.police.uk. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  27. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 752.
  28. ^ "Walthamstow Police Station closed after arson attack to be converted into flats", East London and West Essex Guardian, 9 January 2020, p. 1.
  29. ^ Historic England. "Former New Scotland Yard, Norman Shaw South Building (Grade II) (1357349)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  30. ^ Historic England. "Camberwell Police Station and attached lamp bracket (Grade II) (1378397)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  31. ^ Historic England. "Canon Row Police Station (Grade II*) (1357244)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  32. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 660.
  33. ^ Historic England. "Police Station (Grade II) (1271080)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  34. ^ Historic England. "Court House and Police Station, Old Street (Grade II) (1376533)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  35. ^ Historic England. "Police Station and stables (Grade II) (1393152)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  36. ^ Historic England. "Former Magistrate's Court, 69 Rochester Row (Grade II) (1246992)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  37. ^ Historic England. "Newham Police Station (Grade II) (1253087)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  38. ^ Historic England. "Gates and Piers to entrance to Derby Gate (Grade II) (1066344)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  39. ^ Historic England. "The Police Station, Lower Clapton (Grade II) (1264866)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  40. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 312.
  41. ^ "THE POLICE STATION, Hackney - 1264866 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  42. ^ "Hackney Central Police Station sold to free school trust for £7.6 million". Hackney Citizen. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  43. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 342.
  44. ^ Historic England. "Former Clerkenwell Magistrates Court and attached railings (Grade II) (1195651)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  45. ^ Cherry & Pevsner 2002c, p. 520.
  46. ^ Historic England. "Tower Bridge Magistrates Court, Police Station and railings (Grade II) (1385973)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  47. ^ Historic England. "Wapping Police Station (Grade II) (1411163)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  48. ^ Historic England. "Sutton Police Station, gate piers and police lamps (Grade II) (1244322)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  49. ^ Historic England. "Wealdstone Police Station (Grade II) (1245418)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  50. ^ Historic England. "Greenwich Magistrates Court (Grade II) (1272459)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  51. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, p. 397.
  52. ^ "Golden Square Area: Beak Street". Survey of London. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  53. ^ Historic England. "Greenwich Police Station (Grade II) (1391898)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  54. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 127.
  55. ^ Rasiah, Janine; Silverman, Anna (29 May 2015). "Poll: Flats plan for former Barking police station". Barking and Dagenham Post.
  56. ^ Historic England. "Harrow Road Police Station including stable block, boundary wall, gate pier and fences, bollards and police lamps (Grade II) (1263477)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  57. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 253.
  58. ^ Historic England. "Woolwich Magistrates Court (Grade II) (1391897)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  59. ^ Historic England. "19-21, Great Marlborough Street, W1 (Grade II) (1066742)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  60. ^ Bradley & Pevsner 2003, pp. 410–411.
  61. ^ Historic England. "19–21 Great Marlborough Street (Grade II) (1066742)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  62. ^ Historic England. "West London Magistrates Court (Grade II) (1379935)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  63. ^ Cherry, O'Brien & Pevsner 2005, p. 451.
  64. ^ "Concert", Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, 19 April 1890, p. 5.
  65. ^ "King Arthur", Victoria and Albert Museum, assessed 1 April 2021.
  66. ^ "Architectural Association", The Stage, 23 May 1895, p. 12.
  67. ^ Library and Museum of Freemasonry; London, England; Freemasonry Membership Registers; Description: Membership Registers: Country Q 1391–1482 to Country R 1486–1575; Reel Number: 16.
  68. ^ Library and Museum of Freemasonry; London, England; Freemasonry Membership Registers; Description: Membership Registers: London A Lodges Grand Stewards Lodge to 87; Reel Number: 1.
  69. ^ Surrey History Centre; Woking, Surrey, England; Surrey Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: WOKJ/4/6
  70. ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 2 February 2021.
  71. ^ "John Dixon Butler". Ancestry.com. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  72. ^ "Deaths", Ealing Gazette and West Middlesex Observer, 6 November 1920, p. 4.
  73. ^ Leahy, Kate (27 January 2019). "The Dixon: London's converted courtroom hotel". The Times.

Sources[]

External links[]

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