John Dixon Butler RA, FRIBA (December 1860[1] – 27 October 1920) was a British architect who, for 25 years, was the surveyor for the Metropolitan Police in London.

[3] 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.

[4] John Butler was the deputy surveyor to the Metropolitan Police at the time of being called as a witness in the trial of the murderers of Harriet Lane in 1875.

[5][6] 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.

[9] 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.

[14] Externally, Dixon Butler was careful to design them in a similar style to the surrounding, newly developed suburban areas in which they served.

[86] 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 [c] 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 (played by Dixon Butler) was a district surveyor who had, under his care, three articled pupils, Sirs Lancelot (Albert L. Harris) Mordred (Herbert Phillips Fletcher, brother to Banister Fletcher) and Percival (C.V Cable).