2-791-346 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Arrival of the King of the French during the fire, 1844. Firefighters at New Cross railway station in south-east London: 'His Majesty the King [Louis Philippe] arrived at the station at about eleven o'clock,and on alighting, expressed his great regret at the calamity...One of the most fearful fires that have occurred in the neighbourhood of the metropolis for many years took place...at the works attached to the station of the South Eastern, Brighton, and Croydon Railways at New-cross, resulting in the destruction of property to an enormous amount...It consists of an assemblage of vast workshops, large lathe and planing machine rooms, furnace rooms, carpenters' and painters' rooms, carriage and fire engine houses; and a grand octagonal engine house'. From "Illustrated London News", 1844, Vol I.