2-969-929 - /Heritage Images

Ruins of Covent-Garden Theatre, [London] - Visit of Her Majesty and the Princess Royal, 1856. Queen Victoria was '...conducted to a position which commanded an advantageous view of the ruins. To reach this point, her Majesty and the Princess Royal had to pass through a portion of a lobby connecting the Royal Courtyard with the Piazza entrance to the pit, and strewed over with a mass of charred ruins, through which they had to pick their steps with some care. They were conducted through a low doorway in one of the interior walls to a spot near what had been the position of her Majesty's private box, from which they obtained an excellent view of the ruins, and were able to form an adequate conception of the vast area originally covered by the building, and the melancholy scene of desolation and destruction which it presented'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.