One of London‘s most exclusive private members’ clubs was evacuated in the early hours after a major fire ripped through the building.
Eighty firefighters were scrambled to battle the blaze at Kensington Roof Gardens on the sixth floor in a high rise office block on Derry Street just off High Street Kensington with twelve fire engines.
The fire broke out at 12.57am this morning at the £250 a month members only club and raged on for over two and a half hours until fire crews could subdue the blaze, the flames being under control by 3.36am.
A receptionist in one of the offices below said just before 6am this morning: ‘We’ve had to wait outside in the cold since 1am and they’ve only just let us back in.’
Fire engines are still parked dotted all over High Street Kensington this morning at 6am, with hoses still attached to hydrants and snaking over pavements while uniformed crews secure the area and make final checks.
An investigation into the cause of the fire has now been opened.
Dramatic photos of the burning bar were published by the LFB on social media platform X.
The sky was lit up bright orange as the flames raged in the rooftop garden bar at the top of the nine storey office block in High Street Kensington
The fire brigade was called just before 1am and the fire was not quelled until just after 3.30am. Derry Street was cordoned off
The sky is lit up orange with flames raging through the rooftop area and thick black smoke is seen to be pouring out of the inferno.
Specialist equipment had to be used to tackle the blaze up on the ninth floor of the office block on Derry Street.
The LFB employed one of their 32-metre turntable ladders to get crews up to the rooftop garden bar on the top floor as quickly as possible and to serve as an observation deck that the Incident Commander could use for an aerial view of the fire.
An LFB spokesperson said: ‘Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters tackled a fire at a commercial building on Kensington High Street in Kensington.
‘Part of the rooftop bar area of the nine storey building was alight.
‘One of the Brigade’s 32-metre turntable ladders was used at the scene as an observation tower to provide the Incident Commander with an aerial view of the fire.
Fire engines spilled out from Derry Street onto High Street Kensington in the early hours of this morning
80 firefighters were scrambled from Kensington, Hammersmith, Chelsea and surrounding fire stations in 12 fire engines
A 32-metre high turntable ladder was used as an observation deck to see the fire from above
‘The first call was received at 0057 and Control Officers mobilised crews from Kensington, Hammersmith, Chelsea and surrounding fire stations to the scene. The fire was under control by 0336.
‘The cause of the fire is under investigation.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Kensington Rooftop Gardens for more details.
