2-913-865 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Arch in Whitefriars at the Wilberforce Column, Hull, 1854. Queen Victoria visits Yorkshire. '...dense crowds...assembled in front of the hotel...and thronged the principal thoroughfares of the town, which soon became almost impassable...The inhabitants testified their loyal devotion by an illumination so general, that, along whole lines of streets, scarcely a house could be seen which had not a device of some kind or other. The chief display was in the Market-place and in Whitefriargate, where triumphal arches blazed with light, and the Wilberforce monument and the gilded statue of King William III. were thrown into bold relief...So great was the demand for gas for purposes of illumination, that handbills were issued by the gas companies, requesting the inhabitants to husband the supply, and burn as little as possible within their houses...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.