The clean-up of Kingston's Ancient Market is well underway and parts of it re-opened on Monday, 19 October following a serious fire in the early hours of Tuesday, 6 October.

The blaze destroyed several stalls in the Ancient Market as well as nearby businesses such as Lush, Greggs, and Hotter.

The London Fire Brigade (LFB) sent four fire engines and around 25 firefighters to tackle the blaze, and the market was cordoned off while the LFB and the Met carried out an investigation.

The services concluded their investigation on Thursday, 8 October with the Met telling Nub News that it is not treating the incident as suspicious and the undamaged parts of the market reopened with traders returning to work as normal.

LFB later revealed that the fire was caused by a faulty fridge.

However, the market was forced to close again last week as a number of further safety concerns were identified, and a full clean-up began.

In a statement released last Friday (16 October), Kingston Council said: "The market remains closed to allow the demolition and removal of damaged stalls to take place, along with remedial works to address further safety issues and the full clean up of the area.

"Work on site is progressing and we are currently expecting the market to start to reopen from Monday, 19 October.

"For those who lost their stalls in the fire, this will take a bit longer, as we work with [operator] Between the Bridges to support them to provide temporary stalls to enable them to trade.

"Traders will not be liable for pitch fees while they are unable to trade and we are working with Between the Bridges to support them and help mitigate the loss of earnings.

"While all market stalls will be closed this week, businesses around the perimeter of the market unaffected by the fire will be open as normal. We are also working to support the businesses in buildings damaged by the fire to ensure the area is safe and ready for them to begin their own repair works."

However, as planned, parts of the market did re-open on Monday and a couple of stalls, which were not destroyed by the fire, began trading again.

These included Chilli Cha Cha and Burger Bros, which were forced to close for 12 days following the fire.

Speaking about the fire and re-opening, a stallholder from Chilli Cha Cha told Nub News: "We were forced to close for a couple of weeks because of health and safety problems, including a lot of dust and debris smoke.

"But today [Monday, 19 October] we were allowed to open again. They have cleared up everything.

"So, hopefully in a couple of weeks time, they'll have these little boxes for the food store, and we'll get protection for our catering."

A stallholder from Burger Bros added: "The council and Between the Bridges made us close again afer the fire because of public health and safety issues.

"We are now open, but half of the stalls have remained closed because they were damaged in the fire. We were closed for 12 days and now we are open.

"So, we are very excited to open and to get back to business, but the aftermath of the fire is still affecting our trade. This is because as a community, we have connections, and it's hard to keep those connections with so few of us trading. But hopefully our business continues to thrive and we are looking forward to welcoming customers back."