2-982-134 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Accident at St. George's Hospital: the Cistern on the Roof, 1876. 'One of the female patients...died yesterday week from the effects of the shock caused by this extraordinary accident...[she fell through] a hole in the floor being made by the fall of a large piece of the water-tank from the roof. The tank...contained at the time of the accident twenty-five tons of water, or 5000 gallons. The east side of the tank was that which had given way; there was a large jagged hole broken in it...The alarm was first given by a night nurse who was off duty, and happened to see some water trickling down...the superintendent, Mr. Charles Todd...gave orders to clear the waste-pipe, so that the water, which had already formed a pool on the roof, might run off. Suddenly the whole side seemed to come out, and the superintendent and engineer narrowly escaped being swept away'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.