Demolition vote for fire station amid grade listing review

THE government is reviewing its decision not to grant listed status to Bath's art deco fire station while councillors are due to vote today on whether to demolish it.

- JOHN WIMPERIS

Avon Fire and Rescue Service wants to knock down the 1930s fire station, which has doors too narrow for modern fire engines, and build a modern state-of-the-art facility in its place.

Bath and North East Somerset Council's planning committee will vote on whether to grant planning permission for the scheme today.

But campaigners have been calling for the historic fire station to be saved, with Historic England applying to have it Grade II listed.

The government turned the request down in September, but that decision is now under review.

But if that review has not finished before the planning committee meet tomorrow, the original decision stands and councillors will vote on demolishing an non-listed building.

The Twentieth Century Society has hailed the fire station as a rare work by a female architect from the era. It was completed in 1938 by Molly Gerrard (nee Taylor), who went on to design Kilowatt House.

Historic England said: “It is probably the last of the long tradition of classical buildings in the city before the period in which modernism dominated the architectural scene.”