Small electrical fire hit a café which used to be the offices of Charles Dickens’ weekly magazine on Wellington Street in Covent Garden yesterday afternoon.
The alarm was raised by an occupant of the flats above the shop noticing smoke in their communal stairwell. Smoke was coming from a unit in the basement and a member of staff tackled it using a foam extinguisher. Thankfully there were no injuries.
Two fire engines and 10 firefighters attended and confirmed the fire had been extinguished. The cause of the fire is believed to heating of the fuse board igniting insulation.
The Brigade was called at 1730. Firefighters from Soho were at the scene.
The ground floor of the building that was the office of Charles Dickens' popular weekly magazine All The Year Round, published in 1859-70. Dickens’ used to lodge at rooms above the editorial offices in the late 1860s for a few years before he died in 1870.