2-698-987 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Falling in of the Chapel at Blackfriars', 1623, (1897). On 26 October 1623, some three hundred people crowded into an upper room at the French ambassador's residence, Hunsdon House, in Blackfriars, London. During the service, led by two Jesuits, Robert Drury and William Whittingham, the floor collapsed due to the weight of bodies, and about ninety-five people were killed, including Drury and Whittingham. The disaster, seen by some as a punishment from God on Catholics, became known as the Fatal Vespers. From Old and New London, Volume I, by Walter Thornbury. [Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris & Melbourne, 1897]