2-969-881 - /Heritage Images

Remains of the Pavilion Theatre, after the Fire, 1856. Theatre in east London. '...the firemen went to work in an admirable manner; and, by conveying the hose through the different entrances to the theatre...the brigade were enabled to throw the water in the right direction; but, notwithstanding, the work of devastation continued, and in less than half an hour after the first appearance of the fire the flames had seized upon the pit, and also the boxes and proscenium. To stop the fire at those places the firemen exerted themselves to the utmost, but, unfortunately, without the least success...By six o'clock in the evening the fireman succeeded in getting the ruins sufficiently cooled to allow an inspection to be made; but so extensively was everything within the walls burned that it was impossible to tell how, or even in what part of the theatre, the fire commenced'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.