On Tuesday evening there was a major fire within one of the industrial units in the Europa industrial estate in Fraser Road Erith. Fortunately nobody was hurt and the industrial equipment that was damaged was apparently fully insured. The Europa industrial estate is a very large and busy business centre for the area and it is very close to the location of the forthcoming Lidl supermarket that I wrote about last week. It is not the first time there has been a major fire at the industrial estate, although the last time was many years ago. More on this shortly. Other than industrial and engineering works. The site has in the past been home to a number of other organisations including a short-lived and not very successful radio station.The Europa Industrial Estate has had its share of controversy over the years, including an audacious, illegal nightclub which was opened in one of the larger factory units. Back in November 2008 GC’s Nightclub opened in an old and abandoned industrial unit in The Europa Industrial Estate. The club had no fire certificate, insurance, drinks licence, or indeed any form of legal standing. The shady people behind it hid behind an obscure law which states that unlicensed premises can be used to hold entertainment events up to twelve times per year. The law was intended to allow youth clubs and scout / guide troops to hold cabarets and pantomimes in their village halls without needing to get council approval. Back in 2008, on the day the illegal nightclub opened I wrote of it:- "It is located on Fraser Road, in part of what is left of the run down Europa Industrial Estate. Not what I would consider the prime location for a venue, but no doubt the property was cheap. Reports suggest that building work was still going on an hour before the opening time. Apparently the club was playing "Happy Hardcore" when my spy walked past in the early hours of the morning. I think that is the kind of dance music that goes "whumpf whumpf" - not that I could really care much either way; I have serious doubts that the place will ever serve real ale or play Jethro Tull album tracks. I am not sure if the venue has a proper licence or permission, but at least it is away from a residential area, and stuck bang in the middle of a spectacularly grotty industrial estate that dominates eastern Erith. They are welcome to it". Unscrupulous operators pervert and misuse the law to set up "pop - up" nightclubs in old and often unsafe buildings; they set up the club, then just before opening to the public, they apply for planning permission and an entertainment licence. In most instances, this prevents the council from closing them immediately – they have to wait for the often lengthy legal process of licence approval / denial to go through. In the meantime the club operates with virtual impunity – usually over the Christmas period. The owners know that they have no realistic chance of getting their application approved, and this really is not the point – they get to open over the lucrative Christmas period, only to close up shop as soon as the licence application is thrown out. They then disappear without paying any bills. This is exactly the situation that nearly happened with GC’s Nightclub, but so much negative publicity was generated at the time via both the Maggot Sandwich, and the News Shopper that the venue only opened for three nights before the operators pulled out. It was just as well, as I understand the place was full of blue asbestos, the wiring was condemned and it had no fire escape. The operators disappeared as suddenly as they had appeared, leaving unpaid suppliers, and nothing has been heard of them since. I recall, back on the 16th of May 1984, not very long before the Erith deep water wharf (on the site of what is now Morrison's supermarket) finally closed down, that the the first major fire at the Europa Industrial Estate that stored the giant rolls of newsprint brought in by ship from Scandinavia caught fire. Once the paper was alight, it proved impossible for the fire brigade to put out. Fraser Road was blocked for nearly two weeks, as the emergency services contained the blaze, but left it to burn itself out. I can remember standing in the back garden of my parents’ house in Upper Belvedere on a bright and sunny day, and being amazed by what appeared to be snowflakes falling from a cloudless sky. The flakes were actually specks of ash from the raging paper warehouse blaze a couple of miles away. The smell of burning pervaded the area for nearly a month, well after the fire burned itself out naturally – and left the warehouse building a burned out shell. From my recollections of the fire, nobody was seriously hurt, and there was a substantial insurance settlement to the owners of the Europa Industrial Estate. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
The photo above was taken from Bexley Road, looking East towards Erith town centre in 1971. The site now occupied by the badly damaged Erith De Luci fish sculpture roundabout was then the location of the Wheatley Hotel - a Railway Hotel. A Railway Hotel was a combination of a pub downstairs, and a bed and breakfast upstairs; almost all railway stations at one stage or other had a railway hotel in close proximity - in this case, Erith Station was just across the road. In the time before the invention of the car, people travelling around the country would often need to break their train journey overnight. A room in a railway hotel was cheaper than a full hotel, as the features tended to be more basic, but they were convenient - they fulfilled the same function as a modern Premier Inn - cheap and clean, at least in most cases. On top of this, local residents would use the pub located on the ground floor. I understand that the Wheatley Hotel was a pretty lively place on a Friday and Saturday night. One can also see the still working dock cranes in the background; they were located in the Erith Deep Water Wharf - what is now the site of Morrison's supermarket. The cranes were part of the pier, and were used to unload heavy cargo from moored vessels. Historically cargo which came on ships too large to make in to docklands or the Pool of London were unloaded at Erith.
In a report published last week the website MoneySuperMarket it was announced that Young people using private electric scooters on roads and pavements risk facing huge insurance premiums when they want to drive a car, It emerged this week that almost 800 children aged 13 to 16 had been issued an IN10 endorsement – the code used by the police for “using a vehicle uninsured against third-party risks” since the start of 2020. It stays on a person’s driving record for four years from the date of the offence. IAM RoadSmart, a safety charity that obtained the figures with a freedom of information request, said many of the cases were likely to involve private e-scooters, which cannot be driven in public spaces, ass I have previously reported. In a quote in the Guardian newspaper, Kara Gammell, car insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “If you own an e-scooter, you need to know that riding one illegally is punishable by up to six penalty points on your driving licence and a £300 fine, which can also significantly drive up the cost of your car insurance. If you’re a parent considering buying your teen an e-scooter, or they already own one, be sure to have a conversation with them about using it responsibly, and let them know that riding it on a public road, as well as being illegal, could seriously affect the cost of your car insurance, or theirs in the future.”
I have to make an apology; my Blog updates over the last few weeks have been substantially shorter than usual; the reason for this is that I am currently suffering from Post Covid Fatigue - sometimes known as Long Covid. The symptoms include an upset stomach and extreme exhaustion. I have been housebound for over six weeks now, and any even the most trivial action is difficult. I hope that normal service will resume soon.
The end video this week features a time compressed, speeded up recording of the 401 bus running on its route from Thamesmead to Bexleyheath town centre. Personally I did not realise just how much of Thamesmead the 401 route covered. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.
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