FAMOUS HALL GUTTED

Taranaki Daily News, 23 February 1935, Page 21 (Supplement)

FAMOUS HALL GUTTED

MYSTERIOUS FIRE AFTER A BALL. One of Bristol’s most famous buildings, the Victoria Rooms at Clifton, was reduced to ruin by a fire which occurred a few weeks ago., The blaze occurred following a ball organised by the Thornbury Conservative Association, at which the Duchess of Beaufort received the guests. How the fire originated is a mystery. When the last member of the staff left about four o’clock in the morning, everything was in order, but about six o’clock a taxicab driver. noticed smoke and flames coming from the building. Very soon the hall, was a mass of flames, and the combined.. Bristol * Are, brigades which answered calls could, do little but watch as the old timbered rafters supporting the roof crashed down to ground level. - The firemen fought hard to. save adjacent rooms and buildings, and succeeded in checking the spread of the flames. A fireman was injured by a fall and was taken to a hospital. Since the Victoria Rooms were built in 1840, all the most important West Country. functions and national conferences have met there. Royalty has frequently attended functions held there.'