John Dixon Butler

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 Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police, 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's father, John, had been the appointed Surveyor for the Metropolitan Police in 1881. Upon his retirement in 1895,[5] Dixon Butler succeeded him, a role he retained until his death.[lower-alpha 1][4] Dixon Butler, along with his father, worked under Richard Norman Shaw on the designs for Scotland Yard - his father on the North building, Dixon Butler on the South.[8] The position was later reversed at Canon Row on London's Embankment, on which Dixon Butler was the lead architect and Norman Shaw acted as consultant.[9]

The Metropolitan Police Force Surveyorship was established in 1842[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3][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 station interiors in London became more domesticated 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 for constables, away from the public, and to have officers live at the stations under the supervision of senior colleagues. Extra provisions were also made for the care of prisoners, 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]

Dixon Butler's 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]

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 about 200 buildings during his career, nearly all police stations,[19] and around 10 courthouses;[20] around 58 buildings survive.[19] He 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 Kew, with the one at Pinner, designed in 1897, being the most domesticated of all his stations; it was equipped with living quarters for a married sergeant and his family, including two bedrooms, a living room, a scullery and a larder, 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 of Dixon Butler's existing buildings have since 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

• 1891 - Former police station, 360 Forest Road, Walthamstow[24] (sold for redevelopment in 2020)[25]
• 1896–98 - Former New Scotland Yard, Norman Shaw South Building (assisting Richard Norman Shaw).[26]
• 1897 – Pinner Police Station.[3]
• 1898 – Camberwell Police Station.[27]
• 1898–1902 – Canon Row Police Station.[28]
• 1900–02 – Hyde Park Police Station.[29]
• 1901 - Police Station, Rochester Row[30]
• 1903 – Old Street Police Station and adjoining Court House, Hackney.[31]
• 1903 – Bow Road Police Station, Tower Hamlets.[32]
• 1903–04 - Former Magistrate's Court, 69 Rochester Row[33]
• 1904 – Newham Police Station.[34]
• 1904 – Gates and Piers to entrance to Derby Gate[35]
• 1904 – Lower Clapton Police Station.[36]
• 1904 – North Woolwich Police Station, Albert Road.[37]
• 1904 - Hackney Police Station, Lower Clapton Road.[38] (closed 2013)[39]
• 1906 – Ilford Hill Police Station, Ilford.[40]
• 1906 – Clerkenwell Magistrates Court.[41]
• 1906 – Shoreditch Magistrates Court and Police Station.[42]
• 1906 – Tower Bridge Magistrates Court and adjoining Police Station.[43]
• 1907 – Wapping Police Station.[44]
• 1908 – Sutton Police Station.[45]
• 1908–1909 - Wealdstone Police Station.[46]
• 1909 – Greenwich Magistrates Court.[47]
• 1909–10 – Police Section House, Beak Street, Soho.[48][49]
• 1910 – Greenwich Police Station.[50]
• 1910 – Ripple Road Police Station, Barking.[51][52]
• 1911 – Harrow Road Police Station.[53]
• 1912 – Barking Road Police Station, Plaistow.[54]
• 1912 – Hampstead Police Station, court house.[4]
• 1912 – Woolwich Magistrates Court.[55]
• 1912–13 - No. 19-21 Great Marlborough Street, Westminster (court and police station)[56]
• 1913–16 – Marlborough Street Magistrates Court.[57][58]
• 1914 – West London Magistrates Court, 181 Talgarth Road, Hammersmith[59]
• 1917 – Former police station, 458 Bethnal Green Road (facade and enlargements to an existing building designed by his father, John Butler, in 1892).[6]
• 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.[60]

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.[61] 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 [lower-alpha 4] 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).[63]

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;[64] five years later, he was initiated at the Mount Moriah Lodge, Tower Hill.[65] He married Hannah Frazer (1854–1924)[66] in March 1901;[67] they had no children.[68] 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.[69] His former Tower Bridge Police Station and Court, now a hotel, is named The Dixon in commemoration of his life and works.[70]

• Bradley, Simon; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2003). London 6: Westminster. The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09595-1. OCLC 844722686.
• Cherry, Bridget; O'Brien, Charles; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2005). London 5: East. The Buildings of England. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-10701-2. OCLC 1159868585.
• Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002). London 2: South. The Buildings of England. Newhaven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09651-4. OCLC 844260066.
• Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002). London 3: North West. The Buildings of England. Newhaven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09652-1. OCLC 844442257.
• Cherry, Bridget; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002). London 4: North. The Buildings of England. Newhaven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-09653-8. OCLC 719418475.
• Saint, Andrew (2010). Richard Norman Shaw. New Haven, US and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 9-780300-15526-6.

• Article on the Chadwell Heath Police Station published by Epping Forest District Museum
• Drawings and plans by Dixton Butler for the Wealdstone Police Station and Petty Sessional Court