A fire at St Marylebone Sub-Station in the middle of a densely packed residential neighbourhood in Church St Ward occurred this week, raises fundamental questions about having Sub-Stations in such locations in the first place. 

The news of the fire on Monday caught the attention of many local residents as the dense black clouds polluted the air and the smell of fire debris hanged in the air for the past few days in the neighbourhood.  Let us also not forget the impact it had on the canal, with an oil spill from the sub-station affecting a two mile stretch of the Regents Canal. And may well affected the Little Venice Canal Cavalcade hosted by the IWA over the coming bank holiday weekend. 

The fire caused damage to the roofs of two flats Elmton Court, Wharncliffee Gardens Estate along Cunningham Place, NW8. The sub-station is also right next door to Sanctuary Housing Estate to its immediate East, and thankfully no one was affected from there as well.

Interestingly we have had a number of sub-station fires in London this year including the one near Heathrow which closed down the airport. So maybe it is time for regulators to investigate why this is happening at all? Is our reliance on electricity mean we have sub-stations that can’t handle this energy transition we are attempting to make nationally as resilience of our infrastructure becomes an issue as well. 

There is also a passage going through the sub-station and l think there is very good case to close the Victoria Passage to pedestrian access and even re-locating the sub-station.  Particularly as we have the very big St John’s Wood Sub-Station just nearby on the other side of Lisson Grove. Do we really need two sub-stations so nearby together at all?!