Diners and staff were forced to flee an upmarket fish and chip shop in Marylebone after a fire broke out in its basement yesterday evening.

The owner of the eatery in Marylebone Lane, raised the alarm after he noticed smoke coming out of the basement and evacuated the building.

Six fire engines and 35 firefighters and officers from Soho, Kensington, Paddington and Lambeth fire stations rushed to the scene at 8.45pm where they fought the blaze for almost three hours.

Roland Heal, watch Manager, who was at the fire said: “Firefighters worked extremely hard cutting away large areas of the floor to find the deep-seated fire, which was burning between the ground floor and the basement. Layers of floor coverings had been laid on top of one another over the years, which made cutting it away very hard work.”

“The exposed beams were deeply charred, suggesting the fire had been smouldering away for some time.

Fortunately, fire crews found the source of the fire and put it out before it developed into a major blaze.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.