London – Battersea Fireworks

In 1605, a plot was executed to blow up the British Parliament at Westminster. In charge of the plot was a fellow called Guy Fawkes. The plot failed, everyone involved was hanged and business carried on as normal. In commemoration of this event, fireworks celebrations are held every year around November 5, which was the day of the plot’s failed execution. One of the most popular events in London is held at Battersea Park, on the southern bank of the Thames River. I went along for a look sea.


During the day, Battersea Park is a fairly quiet green, leafy park, sitting right by the river. It’s full of joggers, kids running about and general park related fun. On the night of Guy Fawkes fireworks, however, it goes a bit mental. The Council which runs the event estimates about 55,000 people turn up to see the fireworks. Charging five pounds to get into the park, it’s a bit of a money spinner for the council.

Inside, there were all sorts of tasty looking stalls selling food, mulled wine, ice cream, hot dogs and other usual fairground type food. But since there were 55,000 other people about, the queues were rather humongous. The park opens at 6 and the fireworks start at 8, so I think a lot of people spent this entire time in the ice cream queue – it was huge! The only queue longer was the toiler queue!

At 7:30pm, the bonfire was lit. This is the more traditional part of the celebration. In most towns around England, a massive bonfire is constructed in the days leading up to the event. I’ve seen some rather humongous ones over the years. This one, was more of a token effort. Big bonfires tend to burn through the night and half way through the next day. This one looked like it was designed to burn for a few hours and nothing more.

Traditionally, effigies of Guy Fawkes are burnt on top of the pyre, along with a few devils etc. This wasn’t the case here. In the days of politically correct fun, burning effigies of the devil and Catholics at the same time is a bit of a no no. Instead, it was just a whole lot of wood. It’s a shame really. Watching the effigies burn is the most fun. Oh well.

Up until a few years ago, fireworks were available for sale in shops all over the UK. This meant that for two or three weeks before Guy Fawkes night, every neighbourhood would be subjected to random explosions every night as people let off their own fireworks. This seems to mostly happen at 2am when people were sufficiently drunk and reckless to light the fuse. These days, however, fireworks sales are now banned. People seem to still be able to get them, but in much reduced quantities.



At just past 8pm, the proper fireworks began. I have to admit, that they were quite good. I’m not much of a fireworks fan, but these were done very well. They were also set to music. The explosions were timed with key moments in the song, which was good.

As is usual with fireworks displays, it was all over before you knew it and then there was a mad dash out of the park. After all, there’s no point hanging around in a dark park with 55,000 other strangers!

I must admit to liking the fireworks display more than I was expecting. It’s good to see such an old tradition carried on through the years, but a bit of a shame that the meaning behind the event is being lost. Mind you, the meaning is basically “death to all Catholics”, so perhaps that’s not such a loss.