Denmark Place fire

There were two unlicensed bars on the top two floors of 18 Denmark Place: The Spanish Rooms, a late night bar frequented by locals, including Irish and Jamaican immigrants; and Rodo's, also known as El Dandy, a salsa club popular with South American immigrants. Access to both of these bars was obtained by shouting up from the street below in order to obtain a key. The only way into both of these clubs was through a locked front door and up some stairs leading to a landing.

Access to the club on the lower floor was via this landing and access to the club on the upper floor was via a fire escape enclosed with plywood. Both bars, being unlicensed, were obscured from the outside world by boarded up windows and the door on Denmark Street that led to the fire escape was bolted shut. The Metropolitan Police were aware of the clubs and were planning to shut them both down on Monday 18 August.{{cite news|title=Police were due to raid burnt out clubs|first1=Stewart|last1=Tendler|first2=John|last2=Witherow|work=The Times|location=London|date=19 August 1980|page=2|issue=60707}}{{cite news|url=http://londonist.com/2012/10/londons-forgotten-disasters-the-denmark-street-fire|date=10 October 2012|access-date=22 August 2015|title=London's Forgotten Disasters: The Denmark Street Fire|work=Londonist}} A farewell party was being thrown over the weekend.{{cn|date=February 2022}}

On the night of 16 August 1980, John Thompson, a Scottish-born petty criminal aged 42, entered The Spanish Rooms and drank there. He believed that the barman had overcharged him for the drink. After fighting with the barman, he was ejected from the building and the door was locked behind him. Thompson found a 2-gallon container outside the club, hailed a taxi, then travelled to a 24-hour petrol station in Camden where he filled the container with petrol. He returned to 18 Denmark Place, poured the petrol through the letterbox of the front door, and put a lit piece of paper through.{{cite book|last=Withington|first=John|title=London's Disasters: From Boudicca to the Banking Crisis|date=2011|publisher=History Press Limited|isbn=9780752476247|page=98}}

Fire quickly took hold in the premises owing to the largely timber construction of the building. Both bars were badly damaged. There were estimated to be 150 people within the building at the time. People could not escape easily due to the boarded up windows, the locked fire escape, and general lack of fire safety precautions owing to the bars' unlicensed status.

The fire burned quickly through the wooden staircase, destroying the main entrance and exit to the bars. Some patrons tried to escape via the back door but found that this was locked. Others smashed windows and jumped out onto the street below. On Denmark Street, there was a music shop that backed onto the clubs and some patrons were found here trapped behind the security shutters. One firefighter managed to rescue six people from this area.

When firefighters were called to the fire at around 03:30, they could see smoke seeping from the shuttered windows. When an attempt was made to force the locked front door open they were showered with sparks and embers and were forced to retreat. Once firefighters were able to access the front door, it took four minutes to break it down – behind it they found that the staircase was completely on fire.

The speed of the fire was so rapid that many of the bar patrons died where they were sitting or standing.{{cite news|last1=Brown|first1=Mick|title=Denmark Street: the threatened birthplace of the British record industry|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/artists/denmark-streets-rich-legacy/|access-date=5 June 2017|work=The Telegraph|date=27 September 2015}} An officer from the London Fire Brigade described the scene:

{{Quote|text=People seem to have died on the spot without even having time to move an inch. Some were slumped at tables. Seven were at the bar and appear to have fallen as they stood, with drinks still in their hands.|source=London's Disasters: From Boudicca to the Banking Crisis (2011)|author=John Withington}}

In May 1981, Thompson was convicted on a specimen charge of murdering one of the victims, Archibald Campbell, 63, and sentenced to life imprisonment.{{cite news|title=Arsonist is jailed for murder|work=The Times|location=London|date=8 May 1981|page=3|issue=60922}} He died of lung cancer in hospital while in prison custody on 16 August 2008, the 28th anniversary of the fire.

There was comparatively little publicity about the fire, and no formal enquiry into it. The families of some of those who died were not aware of the circumstances. In 2022, after redevelopment of the site, a plaque was placed on a wall in memory.{{Cite web |date=22 November 2022 |title='They belonged somewhere': the forgotten victims of one of London's deadliest fires |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/nov/22/they-belonged-somewhere-the-forgotten-victims-of-one-of-londons-deadliest-fires |access-date=22 November 2022 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}

• Blue Bird Café fire, 1972 fire in Montreal started in retaliation by patrons refused entry who then lit petrol in front of main entrance and only exit; also killed 37.
• Happy Land fire, 1990 fire in New York City at illegally operated nightclub started the same way by aggrieved ejected patron; resulting 87 fatalities is the worst mass murder in city history caused by a single person.
• Clerkenwell cinema fire, 1994 fire in London at an illegally operated adult cinema, intentionally started by an aggrieved patron.
• Ghost Ship warehouse fire, 2016 fire at illegally operated nightclub in California that killed 37.

;Citations

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;Bibliography

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• {{cite book|title=Underfire: The Dramatic Life of a London Fireman|first=Ray|last=Chilton|publisher=Jeremy Mills Publishing|year=2006|isbn=978-1-905217-18-2}}

{{refend}}

• [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/denmark-place-arson-full-list-of-the-37-victims-10468001.html Denmark Place arson: Full list of the 37 victims] The Independent
• [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/denmark-place-arson-why-people-are-still-searching-for-answers-35-years-on-from-one-of-the-biggest-10467987.html Denmark Place arson: Why people are still searching for answers 35 years on from one of the biggest mass murders in our history] The Independent

{{Club fires}}

{{Murders in the United Kingdom in the 1980s}}

Category:1980 disasters in the United Kingdom

Category:1980s fires in the United Kingdom

Category:1980 in London

Category:1980 murders in the United Kingdom

Category:1980s murders in London

Category:20th century in the London Borough of Camden

Category:20th-century mass murder in England

Category:Building and structure arson attacks in London

Category:Arson in 1980

Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1980

Category:Nightclub arson attacks

Category:August 1980 in the United Kingdom

Category:Crime in the London Borough of Camden

Category:Mass murder in 1980

Category:Mass murder in London

Category:Soho, London