Talk:John Dixon Butler

For later use

• [1]
• [2]
• Resident at 11 Redcliffe Gardens
• [3]

Birth year

Note that Historic England e.g. here, says: :"John Dixon Butler (1861-1920) succeeded his father, John Butler (1828-1900)... " The current year in the article, supported by a FreeBMD entry, is 1860. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:34, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Birth place

Does the fact that Dixon Butler was living at "2 Seymour Terrace (now Walk) in Kensington, London" at the time of the 1861 census necessarily mean that he was born at that address? Thanks. Martinevans123 (talk) 10:47, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Gallery?

Might be worth considering a Gallery, given the number of works? I personally dislike strings of images running down the right-hand side. Something like Hewell Grange can work quite well. KJP1 (talk) 20:48, 3 October 2021 (UTC)

JDB in the London Pevsners

London 1: The City

• Nothing, presumably because the Met's writ didn't run here?

London 2: South

Bridget Cherry/Nikolaus Pevsner Volume 2

• Greenwich Magistrates Court, Blackheath Road. 1909 by JDB. "Dignified stone front with semi-circular domed Ionic porch." (p=249)
• Streatham Police Station, Streatham High Road. 1912 by JDB. (p=391)
• Southwark Police Station and Magistrates Court, Tooley Street. By JDB. 1904. "quite spectacular of its date, with a large broken curved pediment and an outward-curving balcony, and a doorway with a curved hood on elongated brackets." (p=602)

London 3: North West

Bridget Cherry/Nikolaus Pevsner Volume 3

• Introduction - listed as Metropolitan Police Surveyor (1895-1920), following his pa, (1881-1895). (p=21)
• Introduction - "The Police Stations, mostly by JDB, are also a distinctive breed, found over a wider area for the Metropolitan Police authority extended beyond the L.C.C. into Middlesex. Their standard style was a slightly mannered free classical with some Tudor elements, (e.g. Wealdstone, 1905), although they sometimes branched into other styles in sympathy with the neighbourhood (tactful Old English at Northwood, 1910)." (p=65)
• Brent Police Station, Craven Park. 1910 by JDB. "Impressive in scale, a successful hybrid of mid 17th century domestic forms: brick mullioned windows, gabled dormers and a steep, hipped roof." (p=130)
• Wealdstone Police Station, Harrow, High Street. 1905 by JDB. "Handsome free Tudor front with central archway flanked by two canted stone mullioned bays, and a doorway with the mannered elongated consoles typical of JDB's Metropolitan Police buildings of this period." (p=300)
• Murray Road Police Station, Northwood, Hillingdon. 1910 by JDB. "A prominent corner building with deliberately domestic half-timbered frontages in keeping with its suburban neighbours." (p=343)
• No. 45 Kensington Square, Kensington and Chelsea. "adapted by JDB with details of around 1900." (pp=513-514)
• Harrow Road Police Station, No. 325, Paddington. 1912. "Early 20th century Wrenaissance front with a steep pediment and mannered doorway, in the characteristic style of JDB." (p=680)

London 4: North

Bridget Cherry/Nikolaus Pevsner Volume 4

• Introduction - listed as Metropolitan Police Surveyor as per London 3. (loc=xiv)
• Introduction - "These [a couple by Shaw] date from the surveyorship of JDB when an extensive building programme provided London with stations in a severe yet quite domestic style, red brick with spare classical trimmings, distinguished by B's trademark of elongated stone consoles to doors or windows. Hampstead and Highbury Vale are good examples among many. B was also responsible for several larger court houses where his originality in the bold use of Free Classical elements could be given more play. Notable examples (both 1906) are in Old Street, Shoreditch, and the Clerkenwell Courts in Kings Cross Road." (p=52)
• Golders Green Police Station, No. 1069 Finchley Road. 1916 by JDB. (p=136)
• Rosslyn Hill Police Station, Hampstead. By JDB 1910-1913. "..with that architect's typical long corbels supporting the roof hood, and a steep pediment with windows." (p=209)
• Fore Street Police Station, No. 320, Upper Edmonton, Enfield. "a former police station now flats. 1905 by JDB. Stone, with shallow ground-floor bay window, and a big central gable." (p=431)
• Southgate Police Station, No. 387, Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill, Enfield. 1915 by JDB. "Given character by shaped gables and a ground-floor bay window." (p=457)
• Hackney Police Station, Nos. 2-4 Lower Clapton Road. By JDB 1903. "In his characteristic free classical, brick with stone dressings, with a central pediment and tall chimneys." (p=487)
• Dalston Police Station, Dalston Lane, Hackney. By JDB 1914. Converted into flats. (p=487)
• Shoreditch Police Station, Old Street. 1906 by JDB. [A long description which I can email if needed]. (p=520)
• Hornsey Police Station, Tottenham Lane. By JDB 1915. "Future uncertain". (p=554)
• Muswell Hill Police Station, No. 115 Fortis Green Road. By JDB 1900. (p=554)
• Wood Green Police Station, Wood Green High Road, Tottenham and Wood Green. By JDB 1907. "with his typical elongated door consoles." (p=576)
• Tottenham High Road Police Station, Tottenham and Wood Green. By JDB 1913. "large but Neo-Georgian." (p=576)
• Clerkenwell Magistrates Court, corner of King's Cross Road and Great Percy Street, Finsbury. By JDB 1906. "a fine design with his typical oversize keystones and a recessed centre with semicircular pediment." (p=608)
• Highbury Vale Police Station, No. 211 Blackstock Road, Islington. By JDB 1903. "Attractive domestic front in brick and stone, with canted bay windows." (p=665)

London 5: East

Bridget Cherry/Charles O'Brien/Nikolaus Pevsner Volume 5

• Introduction - [A long section on the history of the Met which I can email if needed]. (p=73)
• Barking Police Station, Ripple Road. 1910 by JDB. "A text book design, two-storeys, attic and basement in red brick and Portland stone with bay windows and dormer roofs." (p=127)
• West Ham and Stratford Police Station, West Ham Lane. 1905 by JDB. [The entry is confusing. It reads] ""housing on the site of West Ham Hospital. Its gateway, to Bryant Street, is preserved, a classical arch in Portland stone and brick, with an inscribed parapet. South of Bryant Street is the Police Station (see above). It succeeded JDB's station at No. 94 (now Park House) of 1895. Three storeys with a big cornice over first floor and Butler's typical elongated consoles over the door." (p=240)
• Plaistow Police Station, Barking Road. 1912 by JDB. "in his mature phase, the domestic concerns of his earlier stations now overridden by increasing scale. Four storeys in red brick with stone-banded ground floor and large bow window. Attic dormers and two large segmental pediments." (p=253)
• East Ham Police Station, High Street, South. By JDB 1901-1904. "His characteristic combination: domestic detail given presence by Free Baroque elements. Brick with stone bands. Two mannered, rather ungainly, segmental gables crown the projecting end bays, a steep, triangular-headed dentilled gable rises over the centre." (p=275)
• North Woolwich Police Station, Albert Road. 1904 by JDB. "An enterprising example of his Free Style, striped brick and stone, with shaped gables, an unusually ample hooded stone porch, and a pretty and no doubt useful corner bow window with a domed cap." (p=312)
• Woodford Bridge Police Station, Manor Road. 1900 by JDB. "Small but carefully detailed with stone dressings to the ground-floor bay, upper floor corbelled out, tall chimneys." (p=373)
• Mile End Police Station, corner of East Arbour and Aylward Street, Tower Hamlets. 1920-1925, begun by JDB, completed by G Mackenzie Trench. "L-shaped, red brick, the two parts tied together by a string course. Characteristic Butler canted bays to each façade." (p=451)
• Wapping River Police Station. JDB 1907-1910. "Brick and stone; Norman Shawish. Flats for officers above. Riverfront more elaborate with tiered oriels in the outer bays and moulded stone gables." (p=507) This is also pictured (the only JDB building that is?) on Plate 76.
• Bethnal Green Police Station, Bethnal Green Road. (Now Providence Row Housing Association). 1917 by JDB. "A severe domestic front of two bow windows, stone-faced on the ground floor. [[JDB] refronted and enlarged an existing station, erected by his father in 1892." (p=578)
• Bow Police Station, 11 Bow Road. 1903 by JDB. "Among his finest in East London". [Long description which I can mail]. (p=612)
• Leytonstone Police Station, High Road Waltham Forest. 1908 by JDB. "In his domestic Jacobean style, all brick, including the window mullions." (p=740)
• Walthamstow Police Station, 360 Forest Road. 1891 by JDB. "A substantial red brick pile, in Butler's imposing yet domestic free Jacobean style, with his typical elongated consoles to the door." (p=752)

London 6: Westminster

Simon Bradley/Nikolaus Pevsner Volume 6

• Introduction - surveyor as before. (loc=xv)
• Introduction - "B's distinctive work, much rehearsed throughout London, varied in formality according to status: big pediments and bracketed doorcases for courthouses, unadorned brick Free Style for police section houses." (p=60)
• New Scotland Yard South Annexe - by RNS 1902-1906 "with assistance from JDB." (p=250)
• Beak Street Section House. 1909-1910 by JDB. "Closer to the freewheeling LCC manner of 1900 than to his more formal police station and courthouse idiom." (p=397)
• Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court and Police Station. 1913-1916 by JDB. "Delicate, free Neo-Georgian in stone, with one of Butler's characteristic big doorcases." (pp=410-411)
• Swallow Street Police Station. "Back extension [to earlier station] JDB of 1897-1899. (p=576)
• Hyde Park Police Station. JDB 1900-1902. "From a distance like a medium-sized country house of Charles II's time. Brick quoins. Big hipped roof with tall stacks. Tow-bay pavilion wings. Between them a Quattrocento Ionic colonnade." (p=660)
• Gladstone House and Peel House Police accommodation, Regency Street. "apparently" JDB of 1902-1910. (p=716)

Re. the above

Searching for the Theobalds Road building (which I have yet to find, but will try the Survey of London), it ended up being easier to go through all six volumes and fillet out every index reference to JDB. Good job I'm not busy! I shall leave it to you to cross reference against the Known existing buildings section to see if any have been missed. It is clear that Pevsner's not definitive, however. For example, JDB's not mentioned in connection with Cannon Row. Anyways, hope it's useful. I appreciate that the outlying environs, e.g. Essex, also need to be gone through! KJP1 (talk) 13:57, 27 December 2022 (UTC)

Butler, or Dixon Butler

At the risk of opening up a debate TR raised some time ago, I recently bought - at eye-watering expense - Brodie's RIBA Directory of British Architects: 1834-1914. JDB's entry (p=315) is headed: Butler, John Dixon, 1860-1920. This led me to look at Curl, Oxford Dictionary of Architecture (p=131) which follows Brodie et. al., with Butler, John Dixon. They have some other bits, included that his school was the Western Grammar School. Also worth noting they disagree on his year of birth, with Brodie following your census of 1860, while Curl says 1861. Perhaps we should reconsider whether Butler, rather than Dixon Butler is more accurate. Do you want me to put in a couple of cites to Brodie and Curl? It’s good to see he makes both of them. KJP1 (talk) 09:44, 3 February 2023 (UTC)