2-791-323 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Appalling accident at Blackfriars Bridge, 1844. '...an accident of a most appalling nature took place at the steamboat pier [on the River Thames in London]...a crowd of gazers, principally composed of nursery maids and children, crowded to the steps which descend to the river, and filled up the floating pier...when the timbers which sustained the pier, and which had for a considerable time past been exposed to the action of the tide’s ebb and flow, suddenly gave way, and...upwards of twenty persons were precipitated into the river. Mr. Blomfield, surgeon, of Ratcliffe, happened to be on the spot when the accident occurred, and humanely rendered his professional assistance, nor was he sparing in his attempts to rescue all within his reach...ultimately four bodies were taken up by the drags, but life appeared wholly extinct'. From "Pictorial Times", 1844.