APPALLING ACCIDENT AT THE VICTORIA THEATRE, LONDON.

New Zealander, Volume XV, Issue 1358, 23 April 1859, Page 1 (Supplement)

APPALLING ACCIDENT AT THE VICTORIA THEATRE, LONDON.

On Monday afternoon n most distressing event, the intelligence of which will deeply wound the public feeling throughout the whole country, ocenred in the metropolis, in connection with one of iis great places ot popular recreation, resulting in the violent death ot fi(teen human beings, and injuries more or less serious to many more. Ten of the dead lie at the Lambeth Workhouse, one at Christ Church Workhouse, in the vicinity of the accident, and two at the deadbouse, Lambeth. Of the wounded, eight were token to St. Thomas’s h«-pita', while many others who sustained injuries less gr*ve, and the number ot whom may never he known, were in a state which admitted of their being conveyed to their own homes. The accident, of which these are the deplorable results, happened ar the Victona Theatre, situated at the point of intersection ol Waterloo roal and the New Cut, forming the c ntro of a densely populated and generally poor district ot Lambeth, I a Christmas pantomime as at all the rest of the theatres, is invariably produced, aud on Boxing Day crowds of the humble classes and especially of the young of either sex, rush Irom the whole -urrounding neighborhood to witness tbe performance. So high indeed does curiosity run iu that direcion in those parts that the managers of the theatre find it necessary, not to say lucrative, to repeat the pantomime on the same day; ani the entertainment on Monday was announced to take place first at half-past six. During the performance iu the afternoon the theatre was well filled, though not so densely as it ordinarily is at the evening entertainment on the great Christmas holiday. The gallery however, was tbe part of the bouse most crowded, and, as usua 1 , chiefly by hoys and young men, many ol them of the very lowest cla»s. The pantomime had proceeded well nigh to its conclusion at the afternoon performance. The time was about half-past four or live, and although the audience had not left the theatre, an immense crowd thronged the stairs leading to the gallery, waiting lor the evening performance, and to take the places of those by whom that part of the building was already occupied. On tin- flight of stairs, which were of wood aud of great width, protected by a secure balustrade, there are several landing places, and two barriers were thrown across, one at the money and the oilier at the cheque-taker’s box previous to 'the gallery being open to lessen the pressure of the crowd at these points. The Stair-case runs up the sides ot a large square shaft, iu easy flights from the different landings. This, then, was thb state of things immedially preceding the calamity—au unruly rabble was pick'd nearly to suffocation on the stairs, as far up as the money-taker’s box, where a barrier impeded i:s lurther ascent, and a kindred rabble within the building was on the point of making its exit into the open air. At that unhappy moment an escape of gas is said to have taken place fiom tbe ground on the gall try siairs, and to have exploded. That, however of itself, appears to have caused no immediate hj inn on the people stationed at the point where it occured; but there arose ins antaucously a cry of “ Fire,” which was caught up from mouth to mouth by the crowd above, and conveyed into the gallery itself. From there, in one moment, more, there was a rush by the people down stars so great as to defy all attempts to resist it. 'They opened or lore down the harrier at the lopol tbe stairs opposite the clieck-taker’a box, rushed down in mad haste to the next landing, where again tbe money taker’s barrier off-red but a feeble resistance. There the advanced guard of the crowd waiting on the stairs, sharing in the panic, turned round to swell the descending torrent and effect there escape, This was the crisis ofthe calamity. On reaching the lasi lauding pl-ice from the ground in their downward course more than a score of people were thrown down, and the greater part of them literally trodden and crushed to death. Some there were who precipitated themselves over the balustrades from one landing to another on the heads of the affrighted mass below, and either saved their lives or perished ta the attempt. There is a rumour abroad, to which at this moment we know not what amount of credit is due, that tbe alarm within the theatre originated, not from the explosion of gas on the stars, but with u boy itt one of the boxes, who hud sat on his coat pocket, in which he carried some fusees, and so ignited them. 'ltie accident is certainly referred to this latter cause Dy some of the people connected wiih tbe theatre, who accounting for it in that way, deny tint the explosion of gas on the landingplace ofthe gallery > l Mis bad anything to do with the calamity. They also state that, knowing a crowd always assembles o > such occasions on the stairs leading to the gallery before the audience at the earlier

performance has left the theatre, they provide othir means of exit for the departing body than the ordinary descent by the stairs, and that could the people who left the gallery on the panic have availed themselves of that arrangement, the result would probably have been harmless. It remains to be told that in spite of this frightful calamity, the entertainment at tbe theatre in the evening went on as if nothing uncommon had happened,and that long before the doors opened an immense multitude congregated at all the points of entrance waiting for admission. It may be assumed in charity towards our common humanity, that few of them could have been cognisant of the melancholy event which happened only an hour before, but the conduct of those concerned in the management of the theatre is not susceptible of any such construction. This terrible scene fasted from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour, a time amply sufficient to create the dreadful loss of life that it was found had taken place. The harrowing scene followed of bringing out tbe dead bodies, as well as those who were insensible, and who were all found crowded together on the first landing, crushed, and crushing together in one dense sickening and motionless mass, When some degree of calm had been restored and tbe full extent of the calamity was known, it was found that life was extinct in no less than fifteen, and that probably twenty or thirty bad been injured, but we are itappy to say that, in most cases, the injuries, as far as known at present, were very slight. It is impossible however, to tell what internal injuries may have been sustained by the sufferers in such a crush. Scarcely any of the dead bodies bear the marks of wounds or contusions. Life bad been destroyed in almost every case by simple congestion of the brain, caused by suffocation. Although.so frightful an occurrence was taking place on the stairs of the gallery, the great mass of the people in tbe theatre did not seem io have been in the slightest degree aware of the fact, —English Paper.