John Dixon Butler


John Dixon Butler was a British architect who for 25 years was the surveyor for the Metropolitan Police in London. He was the fifth architect to hold the post from its inception in 1842. He took over the role from his father in 1895.
Butler completed the designs and alterations to around 200 London police buildings, including ten courts; as of 2022, about 60 of his buildings survive. Historic England describe him as having been "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects" and have included around 25 of his buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales.
Butler was born in London and studied architecture under Richard Norman Shaw. With Shaw he would work on the designs for Canon Row Police Station, and the Scotland Yard (south building) on London's Embankment. Butler's designs were usually in a domestic style, sensitive to the context of the newly-developed suburban areas in which the stations were often located. Each of his designs included strong municipal qualities such as iron railings, inscribed lintels identifying the building as a police station, and other stone dressings.
Elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1906, Butler worked up until his death in 1920. He was succeeded in the role of surveyor to the Metropolitan Police by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench.

Early life

Dixon Butler was born in December 1860 at 11 Redcliffe Gardens, Chelsea, London. He was the only son and the second of two children to John Butler, an architect and the surveyor for the Metropolitan Police, and his wife, Hannah Deavin. Dixon Butler studied at University College London and then the Architectural Association before being articled to his father from whom he learnt about the design and planning of police buildings.
Butler designed the police station on Bethnal Green Road, Tower Hamlets, in 1892 and his son refaced it in 1917, making it a rare example of both their work. Both father and son worked under Richard Norman Shaw on the designs for Scotland Yard; Butler on the North building, Dixon Butler on the South. The position was later reversed at Canon Row on London's Embankment, on which Dixon Butler was the lead architect and Norman Shaw acted as consultant.

Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police

The Metropolitan Police Force Surveyorship was established in 1842; the force's first purpose-built station was built at Bow Street, erected two years after Sir Robert Peel's Metropolitan Police Act 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. 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, including his station at Wapping which now houses the Thames River Police Museum.
Under Dixon Butler, after 1895, police station interiors in London became more domesticated and an effort was made to make them more approachable to the public, including their relocation into more public areas. After a violent demonstration outside the station in Bow Street, the Metropolitan Police decided to have separate entrances at their stations for constables, away from the public, and to have officers live at the stations under the supervision of senior colleagues. Extra provisions were also made for the care of prisoners, including the introduction of ablution areas and exercise yards. Externally, Dixon Butler was careful to design them in a similar style to the surrounding, newly developed suburban areas in which they served.
Dixon Butler's designs included features which give his buildings strong municipal accents, such as iron railings and lintels inscribed "Police" or "Police Station", set in stone dressings, and his frequent use of elaborate consoles to doors and windows. These elements give his designs their architectural quality creating a "characteristic type which can be recognised all over London". Historic England describes him as "one of the most accomplished Metropolitan Police architects".

Buildings

Dixon Butler completed about 200 buildings during his career, nearly all police stations, and around 10 courthouses; around 58 buildings survive. He 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. He designed similar police stations at Pinner and Kew, with the one at Pinner, designed in 1897, being the most domesticated of all his stations; it was equipped with living quarters for a married sergeant and his family, including two bedrooms, a living room, a scullery and a larder, a lobby, waiting room, inspector's office, charge room, parade room, three cells, a stable for two horses and an attached ambulance shed.
A number of Dixon Butler's existing buildings have been converted to other uses, including three, Tower Bridge Magistrates Court and Police Station now known as the Dixon Hotel, Marlborough Street Magistrates Court (now The Courthouse Hotel) and Shoreditch Magistrates Court and Police Station (now The Courthouse, Shoreditch), which have been converted to hotels. Historic England have included 32 of these buildings on the National Historic List of England and Wales. All are listed Grade II, with the exception of Canon Row Police Station which is given the higher grading of II*.

Known existing buildings

Personal life and death

In his spare time Dixon Butler participated in amateur dramatics. In an April 1890 edition of the Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette he is listed as a member of the Selwood Operatic Company and performed in a small concert in aid of St James's Church, Croydon. Five years later, according to The Stage, he, along with a group of other architects including George Baron Carvill, took part in a production of King Arthur at the London Scottish Reserves HQ in Buckingham Gate. The play was advertised as being "a burlesque written for architects by architects" and featured an architectural-themed twist to its plot; the part of the King was a district surveyor who had, under his care, three articled pupils, Sirs Lancelot Mordred and Percival.
Like his father, Dixon Butler was an active Freemason and became a member of the Baldwin Lodge in Dalton-in-Furness on 11 June 1890; five years later, he was initiated at the Mount Moriah Lodge, Tower Hill. He married Hannah Frazer in March 1901; they had no children. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1906.
Up until his death Dixon Butler lived in Molesey, Surrey. He died at King's College Hospital on 27 October 1920 and was interred in the churchyard of St John's, Woking. He was succeeded in the role of surveyor to the Metropolitan Police by Gilbert Mackenzie Trench, the same year. Dixon Butler's Tower Bridge Police Station and Court, now a hotel, is named The Dixon in commemoration of him.