An electrical fault in a fridge is believed to have started the fire that tore through Kingston’s historic Ancient Market in the early hours of Tuesday, the London Fire Brigade has said.
The blaze broke out on 6 October while the market square lay deserted, ripping through tightly packed rows of stalls and destroying several of them before firefighters brought it under control. Investigators have since pointed to a refrigeration unit with an electrical fault as the likely source of the fire, which has now been formally ruled accidental.
The Metropolitan Police examined the scene and found nothing to suggest the fire was started deliberately. With no suspicious circumstances identified, the criminal investigation has been closed, allowing the focus to shift fully to the clean-up and recovery.
For the traders who depend on the market for their livelihoods, the finding answers one question but leaves many others. Stalls were reduced to charred frames and twisted metal, stock was destroyed, and the timing could hardly have been worse, with the busy autumn trading season just getting under way. Several stallholders lost their pitches entirely and now face weeks without income while the site is made safe.
Kingston Council leader Andreas Kirsch said he had been left “shocked and saddened” by the dawn blaze, and pledged the authority would work as hard as it could to make the site safe. The council says its priority is to keep supporting those affected and to help what it describes as a much-loved market recover. Read more: the council’s reaction and the support promised to traders
Safety work is now under way on the damaged buildings, and clean-up crews are clearing the worst of the debris from the market square. The council is working alongside Between the Bridges, the company that operates the market, to explore what support can be offered to stallholders whose businesses have been devastated. Some pitches that escaped the flames have already resumed trading, an early sign of the market’s determination to bounce back.
The scale of the destruction was laid bare in photographs taken the morning after the fire, showing blackened stalls and warped frames where traders had set out their goods only hours earlier. In pictures: charred stalls and twisted frames the morning after the Kingston Market blaze
Nearby high street businesses were caught up in the disruption too. Shops including Lush, Greggs and Hotter sit close to the market footprint, and the emergency cordon threw the surrounding streets into confusion during the morning rush hour.
Investigators pointing to a faulty fridge as the likely cause will revive uncomfortable questions about electrical safety in traditional street markets. Refrigeration units, lighting rigs and heaters are part of everyday life on modern stalls, often running for long hours and sometimes left switched on overnight in all weathers. Fire safety specialists routinely warn that ageing appliances, damaged cabling and overloaded sockets are among the most common causes of serious commercial fires.
Market operators across the capital are likely to face renewed scrutiny over overnight power arrangements, the testing of portable electrical equipment and the checks carried out on appliances left plugged in after traders head home. While the Kingston fire has been ruled accidental, it is a stark reminder of how quickly a single faulty appliance can turn into a major incident when there is nobody around to raise the alarm.
The blaze comes at a sensitive moment for the Ancient Market’s future. In January, Between the Bridges submitted plans to the council for a major revamp of the market site, and a decision on those proposals is still pending. The fire and its aftermath are now likely to loom large over that debate, as traders, shoppers and councillors weigh up what one of London’s oldest markets should look like in the years ahead.
For now, though, the priority is getting the market back on its feet. With the cause established and the investigation closed, attention turns to rebuilding — and to making sure the traders at the heart of the Ancient Market can trade again as soon as possible.
