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 (LFB) said there were no injuries and the cause of the fire was not known.

The National Churches Trust has described St Mark's as an "architectural and historical treasure".

The building, which is more than 170 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, told the BBC the fire was "heart-breaking for us as a church and a local community".

"We remain in deep shock, but are so grateful for the prayers and messages that continue to come in, and commit to continuing to serve the local community as best we can," she added.

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.

Reema Raisinghani, 32, lives in Hamilton Terrace directly opposite the church and said residents living on the ground floor of nearby buildings were told to evacuate as the flames spread.

She said the building was fully alight, including the spire, by 00:30 and "pieces of the church were actually falling down the façade".

"It's an iconic church, I'm used to waking up to it every single morning. It's one of those massive community churches, it's just a centre point for the whole terrace as well," she said.

"The beautiful stone colour is now all black, it's a black shell. There's ash everywhere, including outside my whole flat."

Another witness described seeing "lots of flames" which became "much bigger before the roof caved in".

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 on to the building, including two 34m (111 ft) ladders and one 64m (209 ft) ladder that is the tallest of its kind in Europe.

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.

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

LFB said fire teams remained on site making the scene safe and were carrying out investigations into the cause of the blaze.

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

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