Just got home kiwi. We meet every year and raise a glass ( or ten ) to an ex colleague who sadly passed away. We swing the lamp and reminisce of incidents from bygone years and talk about the characters that probably don't or cannot exist in this PC age. We're all retired from the job and this annual meet is particular to the White Watch A25 Westminster, which was my first posting and has which has now closed thanks to Boris Johnson.
This was one of London's premier fire station's that has protected establishments such as Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing St. MI5, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, The Home Office, The Foreign Office, The Commonwealth Office, The House of Commons, The House of Lords, Big Ben, Portcullis House, Victoria Station, The Banqueting House ( Charles I executing site, ) New Scotland Yard, Old Scotland Yard, The Tate Gallery, The Ministry of Defence and numerous other Government buildings. As well as a huge residential area which also incorporates the area of Pimlico which has many residential areas which forms a bubble in one of the loops of the Thames.
In my time there ( 14 years ) I attended major fires at Buck Palace, House of Lords, Foreign Office, Norman Tebbitt's house and The National Gallery as well as numerous serious fire's in and around the area of Pimlico. There was also an incident where a man set himself alight on Parliament Square and I appeared on News at Ten loading his sadly charred body onto an air ambulance helicopter in the early nineties.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, they got rid of a prime location fire station that served the public and the Govenment's most promnent buildings and sold it to one of Boris's mates who is now selling off 11 apartments starting at £2.7m and a restaurant on the ground floor which has been sold to Princess Diana's cousin.
All in the best public interest of course.
https://www.alchemigroup.com/wfs