Former Enfield Fire Station

By Cathy Jones (2023)

The former Enfield Fire Station is located at 430 Liverpool Road, corner of Edward Street, Strathfield South.  It is built in the Federation Arts and Crafts style to a design by E. L. Drew who was the Assistant Government Architect. The tender was let to the builder A Searle of Strathfield in December 1910 and was built in 1911 under the direction of the NSW Government Architect’s Branch of the Public Works Department[1][2] According to the Register of the National Estate listing for the Former Enfield Fire Station, the building ‘is architecturally significant as the last of a series of Fire Stations designed by E L Drew, Assistant to the Government Architect. The series of ten extant stations vividly illustrated Drew’s evolution of style between 1906-1911’.[3]

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 17 May 1910 that:

An up-to-date fire station is to be erected at Enfield. The whole of the present buildings are to be demolished, and the new structure erected on the same site at the corner of Liverpool-road and Edward-street. The front elevation will be on the Liverpool-road side. 

There will be an engine-room 26ft by 18ft, and at the rear a 2-stall stable 18ft by 18ft, and at the rear of that again will be the forage-room. At the side of the engine-room, and dividing it from the residential portion, will be a well-appointed switch-room. The dwelling-house will be divided into two flats, each floor containing hall, sitting, and dining rooms, two bedrooms, bathroom, and out-offices. By this arrangement two families can be housed

The Enfield Fire Station was listed on the now defunct Register of the National Estate as an indicative item[5].  The listing states that the Fire Commissioners sold the Enfield Fire Station in 1945, however other records indicate the station was still owned by the Fire Commissioners in the 1960s. It is uncertain when the Fire Station was decommissioned[6].

The former Enfield Fire Station was readapted into a residential development in 2004. The development involved retention, restoration and conversion of the existing former fire station building to three residential dwellings and in addition construction of an attached two storey residential flat building containing residential units.

References

Building : the magazine for the architect, builder, property owner and merchant, 1910 December, building Publishing Company (1907-1942), p98

Department of Valuer-General, Valuation Lists, Municipality of Strathfield 1960

Enfield Fire Station. (1907, June 19). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article14837467

Fire Station at Enfield.  (1910, May 17). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 4. Retrieved April 30, 2023, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15161884

Former Enfield Fire Station, Register of the National Estate, http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=list_code%3DRNE%3Blga_name%3DStrathfield%3Bkeyword_PD%3Don%3Bkeyword_SS%3Don%3Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blongitude_2dir%3DE%3Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_id=19141

Footnotes

[1] Building (1910), p98

[2] Fire Station at Enfield.  (1910, May 17). SMH, p. 4.

[3] Former Enfield Fire Station, Register of the National Estate listing, Place 19141

[4] SMH (1910 May 17), p4

[5] Former Enfield Fire Station, Register of the National Estate listing, Place 19141

[6] Strathfield Council Valuation List 1960