Tagged: safety RSS

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  hilly 12:22 am on October 28, 2009
  Tags: past ( 59 ), safety   

  The Really Old Fire Station 

  

  The Old Shooters Hill Fire Station

  Earlier this month I wrote about what I referred to as the old fire station on Shrewsbury Lane.

  It was then brought to my attention that referring to the station on Shrewsbury Lane as old is a mistake, because in actual fact that was the new one, and there was another one before that, by the old police station… Now I’m not going to make the same mistake again and refer to the old police station as being the one where the hill meets well hall road, just because there’s no police stationed there any more, but judging by this postcard picture viewed from lower down the hill, the old police/fire stations can be made out, well, apparently the police station replaced the gallows, and the fire station is probably the building next door with a large entrance and lots of very tall chimneys!

  

  The Old Shooters Hill Firemen (and boys)

  Anyway, I was also provided with these pictures of the old station itself, and a little bit of history – apparently it opened in 1879 for horse drawn engines, and closed in 1912 when the new station opened in a more strategic (?) hill top location. Following the move, the building was then used as a Warrant Officer’s quarters for the War Department, and presumably fell into disuse during less warlike times, and was knocked down. Looking at the second picture is quite interesting as the firemen being photographed outside their station are joined by two little boys, I wonder what they did – given the dickensian style of the picture it wouldn’t surprise me if children did work there, although they aren’t wearing uniforms… so perhaps they didn’t make much of a public showing, and their job might have been to keep the place warm when the men were out on duty. Anyway, rather than speculating, I should probably go and do some more investigation, when I can make the time.

   
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  hilly 9:23 pm on October 9, 2009
  Tags: conservation ( 32 ), past ( 59 ), present ( 19 ), safety, services   

  Fire Safety 

  

  The ex New Shooters Hill Fire Station ¹

  Recently I welcomed two huge firemen into my place as part of the free home safety visit² scheme, which is currently being carried out by London Fire Brigade – this includes the installation of smoke alarms. The visit itself was quite brief, and aside from setting up alarms, it includes an education in safety, also available on directgov which is organised under a series of headings:

  1. Smoke Alarms (tested weekly)
  2. Smoking
  3. Cooking
  4. Candles
  5. Portable Heaters
  6. Open Fires
  7. Electrical
  8. Escape Plans
  9. Before Bed Routine

  

  Eltham Fire Station ³

  I was reminded that, like lots of electrical items (batteries, toys etc), smoke alarms would contaminate landfill with lead/lithium/cadmium etc, and should be disposed of at nathan way.

  The other thing that happened is that I started to ask about the selling off of the fire station, the historical preservation of the doors, and where our new station is (Eltham High Street). As a result of the closure, the call out time for this area is around 3 minutes longer. This makes home safety all the more important, especially during icy winter when the hill becomes less accessible to traffic.

  1. Photo by kanshiketsu ↩
  2. You can also call to arrange a visit: ℡ 08000 28 44 28. ↩
  3. Photo by kpmarek ↩

  hilly is discussing. Toggle Comments

   
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    hilly 11:41 am on October 11, 2009

    yes you’re right, plumstead is about a quarter of a mile closer than eltham, perhaps it’s just that the visits for this area are organised by eltham.

    Reply