The night we set the trend for London’s New Year fireworks

London New Year fireworks are among the most spectacular in the world. And as the leading UK fireworks company we can lay claim to have started them. Flashback to 1997 when we staged the capital’s first ever New Year’s Eve fireworks display.

The show originated when we decided the capital should be celebrating New Year with something more exciting than the annual gathering in Trafalgar Square. We wrote to Max Hastings (now Sir Max), editor of the London Evening Standard asking if the paper would sponsor a New Year’s Eve fireworks display on the Thames near the iconic Tower Bridge.

We knew Sir Max was a fireworks enthusiast and to our amazement and delight he wrote back agreeing to sponsor the event. With more than 100,000 lining the banks of the Thames, and with Sky TV’s top news presenter David Boden in attendance, the show lit up London like no other New Year’s Eve before it. We’d broken the mould and London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks were here to stay.