2-888-511 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Ruins [of St. Anne's Church], sketched from the East End, 1850. 'On the morning of Good Friday, at half-past eight o'clock, the inhabitants of the district in which is situated the Church of St. Anne, at Limehouse [in London], were greatly alarmed by the loud and irregular ringing of the Church bells...a man named William Rumbold, accustomed to light the stove fires, and attend to the heating of the church, [had] entered the edifice and proceeded with his duties. He had lighted both the stoves, when, at half-past eight o'clock, he perceived a strong smell of burning wood, and shortly afterwards saw a quantity of smoke issue from the roof...Rumbold, with a view of rousing the neighbourhood, rang the bells in the manner described...The six magnificent pillars supporting the roof - three on each side - are reduced to shapeless masses of calcined stone'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.