Government rejects campaigners' bid to list art deco fire station

THE government has refused to make Bath's “classically beautiful” fire station a listed building.

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The art deco fire station next to Cleveland Bridge is a rare example of a building by a female architect in the 1930s.

But Avon Fire and Rescue Service has warned its bay doors are “too narrow” for modern fire engines and wants to demolish it and build a modern “state-of-the-art facility” in its place.

The Twentieth Century Society, which campaigns to protect “outstanding” architecture from after 1914, had called for the building to be listed instead of demolished.

Historic England agreed, proposing to make it Grade II listed, but has now been overruled by culture minister Baroness Twycross.