John Dixon Butler

Dixon Butler was born in December 1860[2] at 2 Seymour Terrace (now Walk) in Kensington, London.[3] He was the only son and the second of two children to John Butler (1828–1900), an architect, and his wife, Hannah née Deavin.[4] Dixon Butler studied at University College London and the Architectural Association, before being articled to his father, from whom he leant about the design and planning of police-related buildings.[5]

Dixon Butler worked under Richard Norman Shaw in the 1880s and assisted him on the designs for Scotland Yard.[6] The position was reversed at Canon Row on London's Embankment, where Dixon Butler was the lead architect and Norman Shaw acted as consultant.[7] Dixon Butler's father, John, had been the appointed Surveyor for the Metropolitan Police in 1881. Upon his retirement in 1895,[8] Dixon Butler succeeded him, a role he retained until his death.[lower-alpha 1][5]

The Metropolitan Police Force Surveyorship was established in 1842.[lower-alpha 2][lower-alpha 3][11] The force's first purpose built station was at Bow Street in 1831 and was 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.[14] 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,[15] including his station at Wapping which now houses the Thames River Police Museum.[16][17]

The following decade, and as a result of a violent demonstration outside the station in Bow Street, the force decided to have separate entrances for their constables and the public, and to have officers live within the stations and under the supervision of senior colleagues. Extra provisions were also made for the care of prisoners in all of his police stations, when they were incarcerated in cells, having been remanded for court. It was a design that Dixon Butler retained when he took over from his father as the force's surveyor in 1895.[14] Dixon Butler was as conscious of the exteriors of his buildings as he was sensitive to the interiors, predominantly designing them to fit in with the newly developed suburban areas where his stations were built. Cherry, O'Brien and Pevsner note the half-timbering on the upper-storeys of Dixon Butler's stations at Chadwell Heath and Woodford Bridge.[15] His designs include features which give his buildings strong municipal accents, such as iron railings and lintels inscribed "Police" or "Police Station", set in stone dressings. Another Dixon Butler trademark is the use of elaborate consoles to doors and windows.[18] These elements give his designs their architectural quality[14] creating a "characteristic type which can be recognised all over London".[18] Historic England describes him as "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects".[5]

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.[14] 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.[4]

Dixon Butler completed around 200 buildings during his career, nearly all police stations and courthouses, of which around 58 survive. 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)[20] and Shoreditch Magistrates Court and Police Station (now The Courthouse, Shoreditch),[21] which have been converted to hotels. Historic England have included 21 of these buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales.[5] All are listed Grade II, with the exception of Canon Row Police Station which is given the higher grading of II*.[22]

An active Freemason, Dixon Butler joined the Baldwin Lodge in Dalton-in-Furness on 11 June 1890[48] and five years later, was initiated at the Mount Moriah Lodge, Tower Hill.[49] He married Hannah Frazer (1854–1924)[50] in March 1901;[51] they had no children.[52] He was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1906.[5]

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.[53] His former Tower Bridge Police Station and Court, now a hotel, is named The Dixon in commemoration of his life and works.[54]

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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