2-970-019 - /Heritage Images

The Burning of the Vauxhall Railway Station, seen from Battersea-Bridge, 1856. '...a sudden alarm of fire arose, and the same instant it was discovered that a small ante-room adjoining the booking-office, and occupied by the clerk in charge, was in flames. In a very few moments the fire had extended to the booking office itself; and so remarkably rapid was its progress that the officials present, so far from being able to stay its ravages, were compelled to make a hasty retreat...the fire travelled with the rapidity ot electricity, seizing upon the whole of the offices, then extending to the ticket depots, and finally seizing upon the roof of the station; and burning both upwards and downwards, it assumed such a formidable aspect as to convince everyone that the entire station was doomed to be wholly destroyed...[fortunately] not a single person was injured'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.