Group    From 1865 

London Fire Brigade

Categories: Emergency Services

The London Fire Engine Establishment, formed in 1833 under the leadership of James Braidwood, was a private organisation funded by insurance companies, mainly aimed at saving material goods from fires. In 1865, following the Tooley Street fire and others, the publicly-funded and managed Metropolitan Fire Brigade was created, under the control of the Metropolitan Board of Works, later the LCC. In 1904 it was renamed as the London Fire Brigade.

From 1833 the first headquarters were at 68 Watling Street (see Beyond the Flames for some details and a photo), in the City of London. In 1878 moved into an old workhouse on Southwark Bridge Road, extended in 1883. 1937 moved into its Lambeth HQ. In 2007 it moved from there to 169 Union Street, Southwark, practically adjacent to its previous Southwark home.

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This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
London Fire Brigade

Commemorated ati

Dudgeon's Wharf explosion - red plaque

Unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the fire.

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Eyre Massey Shaw

Sir Eyre Massey Shaw, 1830 - 1908, first chief officer of the Metropolitan Fi...

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Fire Brigade HQ - Southwark

This stone relief was located above the main entrance to the former headquart...

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Great fire of Tooley Street

2021: This plaque has been replaced with a similar plaque, re-branded to prom...

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James Braidwood

What a great plaque. The inscription is inside a laurel wreath, in front of a...

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Show all 9

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
London Fire Brigade

Creations i

Dudgeon's Wharf explosion - oblong plaque

The unveiling of this plaque was reported in the East London Advertiser of 24...

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Sidney Street siege and fire

Our colleague Alan Patient decoded JEECS into ‘Jewish East End Celebration So...

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Stephen Maynard - steel plaque

Plaque erected on the 30th anniversary.

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Other Subjects

Auxiliary Fireman Reginald Bruce Wakeman

Auxiliary Fireman Reginald Bruce Wakeman

From the Sub Fire Station 6W, Cheyne Place. Died in a fire which took the lives of seven firemen, known as "The Wednesday". Andrew Behan has kindly carried out some research on this man: Reginald ...

Person, Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Yvonne Green

Yvonne Green

Born in Canada and married to a Canadian army officer. Living at 34 Old Church Street. A part-time Auxiliary Fire Service driver. One of five fire-watchers killed as the night bombs fell on Chelsea...

Person, Emergency Services, Canada

War dead non-military, WW2
2 memorials
Stanley Harold Randolph

Stanley Harold Randolph

Auxiliary Fireman Stanley Harold Randolph was born on 23 July 1905 in Islington, a son of James John Randolph (1859-1921) and Eliza Lavinia Maria Randolph née Scott (1869-1938). His father had been...

Person, Emergency Services

War dead non-military, WW2
1 memorial
Sgt Robert Bentley

Sgt Robert Bentley

Aged 36, was shot dead after entering the house in Cutler Street where robbers were trying to break into the jewellers behind.

Person, Emergency Services, Tragedy

1 memorial
Order of St John of Jerusalem

Order of St John of Jerusalem

Order of St John of Jerusalem The Order of St John of Jerusalem combined religion, crusading military might and the care of the sick. 1309-1522 the primary home of the Order was the island of Rhode...

Group, Armed Forces, Emergency Services, Medicine, Religion

6 memorials

Previously viewed

3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)

3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters)

On 23 July 1901, the 3rd County of London Imperial Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) was formed and on 1 April 1908, the regiment was renamed as the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) and transfe...

Group, Armed Forces

1 memorial
Roger Fry

Roger Fry

Artist, art critic and member of the Bloomsbury Group. Born Roger Eliot Fry at 6, The Grove, Highgate. 8 years later the family moved next door into number 5.  Primarily a landscape painter, he cha...

Person, Art

2 memorials
Bermondsey Settlement

Bermondsey Settlement

The Settlement Movement began in England and the U.S.A in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s. Its aim was to get the rich and poor in society to live more closely together in an interdependent c...

Building, Community / Clubs, Social Welfare

1 memorial
National Firefighters memorial

National Firefighters memorial

EC4, Sermon Lane

Two figures in the sculpture are based on a photograph, “A relief crew damping down in Cannon Street, 17th April 1941” but we cannot find...

War served | WW2
2 subjects commemorated, 8 creators
Boy and panyer

Boy and panyer

EC1, Panyer Alley

This naked boy sitting on his pannier (basket) is thought to refer to the bakers in the area selling their wares on the street from a bre...

1 subject commemorated