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Steelhouse Lane police station is a former police station in central
Steelhouse Lane police station is a former police station in central Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
, England. It was built for the Birmingham City Police
Birmingham City Police was the police service responsible for general policing in the city of Birmingham from 1839 to 1974. The force was established by a special Act of Parliament in 1839, and was amalgamated as of 1 April 1974 with the West M ...
and opened in 1933 as their Central Police Station, replacing a Victorian station on the same site. It was used by their successor, the West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.
The force covers an area of with 2.93million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, ...
, until 2017 where they transferred to Lloyd House Lloyd House may refer to:
People
* Lloyd House (politician), Arizona state representative from 1967 to 1968
Buildings
;in the Netherlands
* Lloyd Hotel, Dutch national monument in Amsterdam
in the United Kingdom
*Lloyd House, Birmingham
in the U ...
, also the force's HQ. The carvings over the entrances, including the coat of arms of Birmingham
The coat of arms of Birmingham – the heraldic emblem of the English city of Birmingham – was first used in 1838 and has changed several times since, as the former town grew and developed into a city.
History Incorporation
Following the i ...
, are by the local sculptor William Bloye
William James Bloye (8 July 1890 – 6 June 1975) was an English sculptor, active in Birmingham either side of World War II.
Life
Bloye studied, and later, taught at the Birmingham School of Art (his training was interrupted by World War ...
.
The station sits on a plot of land at the rear of the former Victoria Law Courts
The Victoria Law Courts on Corporation Street, Birmingham, England is a Grade I listed red brick and terracotta building that now houses Birmingham Magistrates' Court.
History
Designed by Aston Webb & Ingress Bell of London after an open com ...
(now a magistrates' court), which was originally acquired for the extension of the court building. It faces Birmingham Children's Hospital
Birmingham Children's Hospital is a specialist children's hospital located in Birmingham, England. The hospital provides a range of specialist services and operates the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) for the city. The servi ...
.
The 1933 station itself, in neo-Georgian style is not a listed building, but the adjacent, late-nineteenth century cell block on the corner of Coleridge Passage was given Grade II protection on 8 July 1982 for its special architectural interest: the three-story building has a brick and terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
facade with many ornaments, and it has a slate roof
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock ...
. The station sits in Birmingham City Council's ''Steelhouse Lane conservation area'', which was designated in October 1993. A tunnel links the cell block to the courts.
The City of Birmingham Orchestra, (later renamed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall: a B:Music Venue in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its a ...
) held its first rehearsal in the band room at the old station, at 9.30am on 4 September 1920. For around sixty years, until closed in 2005, the station housed a private bar, allowing officers to drink when not on duty.
The police station closed for the final time on Sunday 15 January 2017. There are plans to relocate the West Midlands Police Museum to the listed cell block.
References
{{Coord, 52.4843, -1.8934, region:GB-BIR_type:landmark, display=title Birmingham City Police West Midlands Police Police stations in the West Midlands (county) Buildings and structures in Birmingham, West Midlands Government buildings completed in 1933