2-889-265 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins of the Great Fire at Bermondsey, [in London], 1850. Firemen at the scene '...of a very extensive conflagration, probably the largest that has occurred in the district for years. The premises on which the fire happened were those of Messrs. H. N. and H. Eason, tanners and leather-dressers...The engine-house stood in about the middle of the principal range, a large lofty barn, in which were 300 loads of bark, of the value of more than £5000, being to the right or north side, and the leather warehouse and another bark store on the left or south side. Almost immediately on the discovery flames were seen travelling into the bark-barn and leather warehouse...The huge heap of bark was one burning mass, while the flakes of fire kept falling in torrents...To add to the dismay of all around, the gable end of the barn in which the bark was stored gave way, as if from the force of an explosion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.