Originally, William Cubitt offered to build a fire station on the Island in the 1850s, but it was not until 1872 that action was undertaken, significantly influenced by local concerns that – if a bridge was up – there was no way that an engine from the fire station at West India Dock Rd would be able to attend to an Island fire on time.
The Isle of Dogs Fire Engine Station, was opened in 1877 on undeveloped land owned by Lady Margaret Charteris, a major Island landowner and wife of Lord Stafford. It housed six firemen, a coachman, three horses, a steam fire-engine, a manual engine, a curricle and a fire-escape.
In the mid-1890s it was realized that the building was too small. Because of an increase in the number of staff, some of the men had to be lodged in houses in the neighbourhood, and a pair of horses was kept in rented stables. Additional ground to the rear of the station was acquired, together with the freehold of the original premises, and plans were prepared for the alteration and enlargement of the building. These plans were not executed and revised ones were produced in 1903, but the estimated cost of carrying them out was such that it was decided that it was preferable to erect a new building.
Designed by the Fire Brigade Section of the LCC Architect’s Department, at an estimated cost of £11,300, and erected by the Council’s Works Department, the new station was completed by May 1905. The main building is of four storeys, in the Queen Anne style characteristic of the LCC fire stations of the period. It is of red brick, with Doric pilasters picked out in a darker brick, the ground-floor level is in stone, now rendered. A triangular steel hose-hoist tower was erected in the yard. The adoption of motorized appliances rendered the stables obsolete and in 1925 they were converted into a mess room and offices.
Externally, at least, the building hardly changed at all in the coming decades. During World War II, it naturally became the headquarters of the civilian and Auxiliary Fire Service firefighting effort on the Island, and many of its personnel were killed and injured during the course of the war.
In about 2006 a new fire station was opened in the north of Westferry Rd, close to the corner with Byng St, and the old station closed down.
In 2008 the former Millwall Fire Station converted in to apartment block named for Violet Pengelly and Joan Bartlett, members of the London Auxiliary Fire Service killed during bombing of their depot at Cubitt Town School in Saunders Ness Rd during World War II, along with more than 20 colleagues.
As for the main building, the ground floor was converted into a bistro – The Old Fire Station Bistro & Bar – which opened in 2008.