26.03.13 - Cuming Museum Fire, London

Devastated by the news of the fire on the Walworth Road this afternoon. The old Walworth town hall building next to the Heygate Estate houses the Cuming Museum, and that part of the building seems to have been worst hit by the fire (photo from SE1 on twitter).

The Cuming Museum is not just a great local history museum, it also houses two irreplaceable collections, the 19th century Cuming collection of weird and wonderful global artifacts and Edward Lovett’s collection of objects associated with early 20th century London folklore. It seems inevitable that these collections will have been severely damaged at least, if not destroyed altogether.

It is great news that nobody on site was injured – the fire spread very quickly – and that the same applies to the many firefighters who have helped tackle the blaze.