London Assembly Warns City's Heritage Buildings Face a Notre Dame-Scale Fire Risk

The London Assembly Fire Committee convened a special session on 21 October 2026 to address the fire risk to London's heritage buildings, following a year in which 823 fire incidents occurred within 15 metres of or inside heritage sites across the capital in 2025, of which 19 resulted in casualties. Experts including fire safety engineers, National Trust representatives and heritage site managers gave evidence. Charlie Harris, National Fire Adviser for Historic England, described fire as 'the greatest single risk to our cultural heritage.' The session drew comparisons with the 2019 Notre Dame Cathedral fire in Paris, which dramatically highlighted how poorly protected historic structures can be. Recent London incidents raised in the session included the 2015 Battersea Arts Centre fire, a 2023 blaze at St Mark's Church in St John's Wood and a 2024 fire at Somerset House. A central tension discussed was the challenge of retrofitting modern fire-suppression systems into buildings whose historic character must legally be preserved. The committee is expected to produce a set of recommendations for the Mayor and the London Fire Brigade.