Long Description:
This fire station was constructed in 1983 and accommodates
three vehicles.
The Covent Garden London website [visit link]
tells us:
"The current Soho Fire Station in Shaftesbury Avenue was
opened in 1983, to replace the earlier station, which stood
adjacent.
The earliest recorded "Fire Brigade" in Soho and Covent
Garden was formed in "Tom's Coffee House" in St Martin's Lane in 1699, funded by
a group of insurance companies. In 1707, Queen Anne ordered church parishes to
organise themselves with Parish-Pumps, to be manned by the warden and other
parish volunteers. St Anne's in Soho and St Martins-in-the fields would both
have had parish-pumps.
In 1921, the London County Council purchased the
freehold of the premises at 72 Shaftesbury Avenue, and the new Soho Fire Station
was opened. To one side of the station was the famous Avenue Public House, and
to the other the Shaftesbury Theatre. Opposite was the Palace Theatre, which
took to playing musicals only because of the noise made by the firemen on
turning out for a shout!
During the war, the fire station received a direct hit,
in October 1940. One fireman was killed, two others trapped in the rubble, and
the station seriously damaged. By 1942, a temporary structure had been put in
place in Shaftesbury Avenue. This building remained in use until the new station
was constructed in 1983.
The station's ground remains one of the smallest in the
world, covering a ragged square mile within which some of the most important
buildings in London exist. Since 1937, Soho Fire Station has been home to two
fire engines (or pumps) and a turntable ladder.
Fire-fighters at Soho respond to over 7,000 calls a
year, making it one of the world's busiest fire stations. As well as fires,
crews respond to a variety of incidents, including special services which range
from road traffic accidents and people shut in lifts, to chemical spillages and
people under trains.
Any fire call to a building in the area attracts a
minimum attendance of three pumping appliances. There is a statutory obligation
for the first two appliances to arrive at the incident within five minutes and
the third within eight minutes. This requirement becomes increasingly difficult
to meet, as the speed of central London's traffic gradually
slows.
Local residents and businesses can help fire crews by
always being mindful of fire engines when parking in the Covent Garden area.
Quite often, a one-minute delay can make the difference between a life saved and
a life lost."