Croydon Advertiser and East Surrey Reporter – Friday 21 April 1939

MITCHAM SHOP BLAZE
MAN RAN TO FIRE STATION IN HIS SOCKS
Family’s Narrow Escape

“The Home-made Pie Shop” on Mitcham Fair Green was burnt out in the early hours of Monday morning. Mr. Bryant, his wife and child, who occupied rooms above, had to rush Into the street partly clad. They had a narrow escape from being cut off by the flames, which blazed up the front of the shop to their bedroom window. A milk roundsman called the Fire Brigade from the point near the Jubilee Clock Tower. They were just leaving the station at five minutes past three when Mr. Bryant rushed in give the alarm. He had run all the way, quarter of a mile or more, his socks. The brigade gave him a lift back to the shop. Chief Officer W. Lawson, who was in charge, entered the shop to make sure no one was left on the premises, which were then well alight. The shop, which was partly matchboarded, was loaded with stock, all of which was destroyed. A good deal of the Bryant family’s furniture was damaged. Mr. H. J. Clarke, the proprietor of the shop, and also of “The Home-made Cake Shop” next door, told The Advertiser that he was awakened by Mr. Bryant. The flames were then leaping up the front of the pie shop. It was a big blaze. There was an exceptionally heavy stock in both shops owing to the war scare. The damage was considerable. The two shops, both small, are at the corner of the Nag’s Head forecourt, opposite the Conservative Club. They are among the older properties on the Fair Green.