North Parade Fires

In the 1970s a pyromaniac, or arsonist, set several fires over the space of a few weeks, in Rumbelows, VG Supermarket and the Co-op - we spent several nights standing in the street watching the firemen at work. Rumbelows was torched on about 3 or 4 occasions and was quite a sight with TV tubes exploding, as was VG with its aerosols. Although it was all rumoured to be the work of one person I don't think a culprit was ever found.

Borax Factory Fire

In the late 1960s we followed a pall of acrid black smoke that seemed to be coming from Mount Road - we eventually saw it was the Borax factory at the junction of Cox Lane and Mount Road which was exploding, some kind of paint or petrochemical was going up in style and we stood with dozens of other local people on the knoll at the top of Mount Road to watch, like an impromptu fireworks display. These days we'd worry about toxic fumes but we were unaware of them then. The Borax site is now occupied by the large IDEAL building which can be seen from London

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