3-021-759 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Works in the bed of the Regent's Park Lake, [London], 1868. '...at the bidding of Lord John Manners, the emptied bed of the Regent's Park ornamental water presented a hideous spectacle to the eyes of the Londoners and their visitors...In reply to a question from one of the members for Marylebone, it was then stated by the First Commissioner of Works that the water was drained off in order to level the bottom and reduce the lake to a moderate and uniform depth, so that persons falling in there - persons of adult stature - might not be drowned; a precaution taken some years ago with the water in St. James's Park. At the same time, the bottom is to be laid with a floor of concrete, which will keep the water free of mud, and which may, from time to time, be easily cleaned. These operations have been carried on with tolerable activity, since the beginning of the year, by a large party of labourers, with the aid of several locomotives running upon temporary lines of railway. The whole extent of the ornamental water in Regent's Park is eighteen acres'. 40 people died in the Regent's Park skating disaster of 15 January 1867. The ice broke on the lake, pitching about 200 people into freezing water. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.