St John’s Wood: Historic church destroyed in large fire

A Grade II listed church in north-west London has been destroyed in a fire overnight.

Eighty firefighters were deployed to St Mark’s church in Hamilton Terrace, St John’s Wood, at 23:20 GMT on Thursday.

Videos on social media showed the entire two-storey building alight, while witnesses said the roof of the ornate Victorian building had caved in.

London Fire Brigade said there were no injuries and the cause of the fire, which is under control, was not known.

The National Churches Trust has described St Mark’s as an “architectural and historical treasure”.

The building, which is more than 150 years old, has links to author Lewis Carroll and Queen Victoria’s son Prince Leopold and is situated near Abbey Road Studios and Lord’s Cricket Ground.

The vicar of St Mark’s, the Reverend Kate Harrison, tweeted she felt “broken” by the blaze.

Sophia Tennant, who witnessed the fire, said she was getting ready for bed when she looked out of the window and saw flames rising from inside a building which she later realised was the church.

After calling the fire brigade, she said she “came and watched and it was really flaming, most of the roof seemed to be on fire”.

“You could see the fire inside the church going up what would have been the stained glass window at the east end, so it’s pretty disastrous,” she said.

Another resident said: “I got up and looked out my bedroom window and the road outside was full of fire engines.

“I just got my coat on, came outside the front door and just noticed the church next door was just ablaze.

“It’s terrible, the whole church was on fire – smoke everywhere. It’s extremely sad because it’s a very old church and it’s ruined now.”

A further witness described seeing “lots of flames” which became “much bigger before the roof caved in”.

Households in the area have been advised to keep windows and doors closed, and police asked the public to avoid the area to allow emergency services to work.

Westminster City Council said there would be local road closures until late morning, but all residents were “safe and accounted for”.

The church was built in 1846 and survived being hit by a bomb in 1941 during World War Two, with work to rebuild its spire being completed in 1955.

Eddie Tulasiewicz, from the National Churches Trust, said it was a tragedy that such a “beautiful, historic church” had been struck by fire, but he hoped “a lot of the interior can be saved”.

“Churches are full of wood and most have fire detectors, but what they need is sprinkler systems,” he said.

More than 10 fire engines were deployed to the scene, with crews from North Kensington, Paddington and West Hampstead working to put out the flames.

Firefighters used three ladders to spray water onto the building, including two 34m (111 ft) ladders and one 64m (209 ft) ladder that is the tallest of its kind in Europe.

LFB said investigators were working to discover the cause of the blaze.

Source: BBC News