Do you remember the night High Town, Hereford, burned? It was seven years ago today (October 21), reader Leon Oldman has reminded us.

He posted these pictures of the blaze in the Hereford Times Camera Club Facebook group:

Hereford Times:

Hereford Times:

About 70 firefighters and 20 fire engines fought the blaze seven years ago.

It began in the Card Factory at about 4.30am in the morning and spread to a number of neighbouring shops.

Four people were evacuated from city centre flats – but no one was injured.

The Black and White house in the centre of High Town was undamaged.

High Town, the Buttermarket, St Owen Street and St Peter’s Square were closed for some time after the fire.

To help city centre shop workers, Herefordshire Council opened up the Shire Hall as a gathering centre so workers could get the latest information.

Last month we reported how the owners of buildings damaged by the fire in High Town submitted a new planning application for the site, which has empty since the blaze.

New owners Elevate Property Group amended their earlier proposals slightly to include less retail space and more residential space.

Their previous application proposed two ground floor shops, with number 16 (previously the Card Factory) occupying 95sqm and number 18 (previously River Island) taking up 237sqm.

The new application was to reduce the previous River Island unit space to 173sqm, but keep unit 16 the same.

The applicants also want to build 10 apartments above the shops, instead of 12.

They also want to reinstate the East Street frontage and build six apartments over three floors, instead of seven as previously proposed. This is because a substation needs to be installed on the ground floor.

However, instead of one single home in the area behind Ann Summers, the applicant wants to put three new two-bedroom townhouses.