Old Fire Station, Bowness-on-Windermere
The Brief
Restoring a relocated timber fire station, making it weathertight and stabilising its tower
The Old Fire Station is a timber building that was originally located in Windermere village before being moved to the site of the former Steamboat Museum in Bowness-on-Windermere.
It now sits beside the model boating pond, within the wider Windermere Jetty site operated by Lakeland Arts.
By the time John Coward Architects became involved, the building needed repair and the timber tower had become unstable. The project was carried out on a relatively tight programme, starting in January 2019 and completing in May that year.
Key features
- Repair of a relocated historic timber building
- Structural stabilisation of the tower
- New bracing and connections introduced with the structural engineer
- Roof slate repairs to make the building weathertight
- Repairs to timber cladding
- New ground-floor structure internally
- Minimal intervention to retain historic fabric
- Completed between January and May 2019
Stabilising the tower with minimal intervention
The tower was one of the main challenges. Its timber structure and how it had originally been put together meant it had become unstable.
John Coward Architects worked closely with the structural engineer to develop new bracing and connections to stabilise it without introducing more intervention than necessary. The aim was to retain as much of the existing historic fabric as possible.
Repairs were also carried out to the roof slates and timber cladding to make the building weathertight, and a new floor was introduced internally at ground-floor level.
Lakeland Arts now uses the building for storage and can also provide a pop-up food offer during busy periods.
It is a lovely little project in a gorgeous setting and quite an unusual building to work on. The challenge was to stabilise it with as little intervention as possible, while retaining as much historic fabric as we could.
