BUILDING COLLAPSES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23418, 7 August 1939, Page 9

BUILDING COLLAPSES

VIOLENT GAS EXPLOSION VICINITY OF ST. PAUL'S MANY PEOPLE INJURED LONDON, Angr. 4 A violent explosion occurred in a building south of St. Paul's Cathedral, on the corner of Godliman and Knightrider Streets. The whole structure collapsed, mid hundreds of windows in Queen Victoria Street were shattered. The explosion was duo to rain causing a subsidence in the road-bed, which burst a water main and undermined a vacant building in Bakerhouse Court, near Godliman Street. The building collapsed and broke a gas main, filling the collar with gas, which then ignited and blew to smithereens tho entire fivestorey structure. Workers stampeded from adjacent buildings, and soino were hurled through windows and doors. There were 73 people injured and taken to hospital. > The streets were littered with broken glass from tho windows, including some from St. Paul's Cathedral, where evensong was in progress, but the priceless stained-glass was not damaged. Fire brigades extinguished the burning debris and flaming woodblocks in the roadway. They examined tho ruins, but found nobody killed. The Government had taken over the wrecked building for an extension to an adjacent telephone exchange.