Fire Brigade plans return to old Albert Embankment HQ
The London Fire Brigade's search for a new headquarters when the lease on its Union Street building comes to an end has led it to consider returning to its historic home on the Albert Embankment.
We reported in November 2023 that the London Fire Brigade was planning to leave its current offices in a former parcels sorting office in Union Street when the lease ends in 2027.
This week London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe signed off a new report authorising work to continue on plans to refurbish the brigade's former HQ on the Albert Embankment as the service's new home from 2029 onwards.
The purpose-built riverside building near Lambeth Bridge was the brigade's base from 1937 to 2007 and is a grade II listed structure.
If the plan to return to Albert Embankment goes ahead, the development would include upgraded facilities for Lambeth Fire Station and a permanent base for the London Fire Brigade Museum which has been in exile since its Southwark Bridge Road home closed for redevelopment nearly a decade ago.
Since 2007 the brigade has twice tried and failed to redevelop the Albert Embankment site with mixed-use schemes.
Speaking at the London Assembly's budget & performance committee this week, Conservative Susan Hall AM said: "We need to stop talking about that damned building. It's been going on too long!"
In reply, commissioner Andy Roe joked: "It's still got 'London Fire Brigade Headquarters' written on the front of it, so I'm quite keen to return to it. It's all practical common sense really."
The latest LFB report makes no mention of what would happen to the former workshop buildings on Lambeth High Street if the main riverside block was refurbished for use as brigade offices.
With the LFB expected to leave Union Street in 2027 and any new HQ not due to be completed until 2028 at the earliest, plans for temporary offices at another location are also under consideration.
