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p16
 An inscription on an old tombstone in
St Mary's churchyard commemorates the untimely death of 23-year-old Elizabeth Picket, who
died in 1781 from severe burns when her clothes caught fire while ironing. Her father
William issued the grim warning: 'Reader, if you should witness such an afflicting scene,
recollect that the only method to extinguish the flame is to stifle it by immediate
covering.' This is the first recorded reference to firefighting in Stoke Newington.
By the 1780s the local parish possessed a pump-powered fire engine, which was probably
kept at St Mary's Church. The location of the engine and fire-fighting equipment was to
change several times over the next 200 years, moving in 1806 to the north side of Church
Street, near today's Barn Street, and in 1820 to Red Lion Lane, just behind The Tup public
house. By 1858 the station had moved again, this time to Stoke Newington High Street, just
opposite Dynevor Road. Within ten years Hackney and Stoke Newington's fire brigade was
merged into the new Metropolitan Fire Brigade, and the engine was called out
to a house fire in Edwards Lane in 1871. However, it was too late to prevent the death of
19-year-old Amelia Kennedy who saved her two brothers from the flames, but perished
attempting to save her sister whom she mistakenly thought to be still in the house.
Some years later a similar tragedy occurred when 26-year-old Elizabeth Coglam, of Church
Path, died from burns caused by carrying a blazing paraffin oil lamp into her yard to save
her two sleeping children
In 1886 a new, three-storey fire station was built, at the cost of £5,500, in Leswin
Road. Also around this time, fire alarm points were introduced across the borough, many of
which survived until the 1950s when the spread of private telephones and call boxes
rendered them obsolete. By the turn of the century, with the service now under the control
of the London County Council and renamed the London Fire Brigade, two Fire Escape Stations
had been established in the area. These were manned by an Escape Conductor and staffed by
volunteers who would manhandle a heavy set of  wooden ladders
mounted on a two-wheeled cart to the scene of a local fire to save lives. As attendance
times improved from the main fire stations, these worthy initiatives withered away.
During World War Two, local firefighters were kept busy attending to the numerous
conflagrations caused by German bombing. In 1954, a large depository owned by J Hibbard
& Sons, situated between Bouverie Road and Abney Park Cemetery, was almost completely
destroyed by fire. Over 150 fireman and 30 pumps fought the flames: it was described at
the time as 'the biggest catastrophe since the War'.
In 1968, with London now administered by the Greater London Council, the city's 122 fire
stations were divided into three commands, Stoke Newington Fire Station No C23 being part
of eastern command. The existing fire station on Leswin Road was increasingly outdated
and, in 1976, a new, two-storey, two engine station, with a separate practice tower
station, was built on Church Street on the site of the western half of Fleetwood House. It
was immediately in action when a large fire at Whincop's timber yard prompted the
demolition of houses and shops in Aldam Place. Since then, there have been several
substantial fires in the area, notably at the Raleigh Memorial Church in Albion Grove in
1989 and the blaze that gutted St Mary's Church Hall in Defoe Road in 1993.
The sight of the fire engine, lights flashing and sirens wailing, dodging its way along
Church Street is a familiar one to local residents. However, the narrowness of the street
and the parking obstacles makes one think that perhaps the station should consider moving
yet again to a more appropriate location.
Thanks to Derek Baker for his help in the preparation of this article.
Leswin Road Fire Station, c. 1905. Courtesy Hackney Archives
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