Fire at Golders Green supermarket sends smoke over north-west London

Smoke from a fire at Kosher Kingdom on Golders Green Road sent a large emergency response into Golders Green, with the London Fire Brigade saying it received the first of 56 calls shortly after 06:45 BST.

About 100 firefighters and 15 fire engines were sent to the scene at the three-storey building, which has flats above the supermarket. The brigade warned that the fire was producing a significant amount of smoke, and residents nearby were told to keep windows and doors shut.

Road closures were put in place as crews worked at the site, including on Golders Green Road near the junction with Beverley Gardens. The disruption cut into one of Golders Green’s busiest local corridors, where a fire in a shop below living accommodation can quickly become both a commercial and residential emergency.

The cause of the blaze remained unknown as firefighters continued to deal with the incident. The scale of the response, and the warning about smoke, underlined the risk posed by mixed-use buildings, where a fire in a ground-floor supermarket can force precautions far beyond the property itself and affect homes, traffic and nearby streets at once.

Kosher Kingdom sits in a tightly knit part of north-west London, where daily footfall, family homes and local business activity overlap on the same stretch of road. For residents living above or close to the store, the immediate concern was not only the fire itself but the smoke, the road closures and the uncertainty surrounding what sparked the blaze.