2-969-880 - /Heritage Images

Exterior of the [Royal] Pavilion Theatre, Whitechapel, 1856. Theatre in east London destroyed by fire. 'The flames...mounted so high into the air as to be visible for miles distant, although daylight; and by ten o'clock every part of the establishment was reduced to a heap of smoking ruins. Mrs. Connorton, the proprietress of the buiiding, was insured for the machinery, wardrobe, and theatre, in the Phoenix and Monarch fire offices. Messrs. Elphinstone aud Neale, the lessees, who have lost a vast quantity of property by the disastrous event, were entirely uninsured. As to the origin of the misfortune, nothing that can be depended upon can be ascertained. The previous night a piece called "The Red Crow" was performed, which terminated with the burning of the Robin Hood Tavern; and it is not unlikely that some of the burning embers may have remained smouldering during the night'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.