3-034-872 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Fire at Rotherhithe, [east London], 1871. 'The fire which broke out, a quarter before five in the morning, in a phosphate-manure warehouse, and spread to the adjacent granaries, shipwrights' storehouses, and other premises, consumed a vast amount of property...a policeman...gave the alarm and sent for the engines. They came, one after another, to the number of eleven,...with four floating engines; the firemen numbered 139 in all. The water supply was very bad, and it was three quarters of an hour from the discovery of the fire before any could be obtained...Unfortunately, the tide was at three-quarter ebb, and a bank of mud extending several hundred feet into the river destroyed this source of supply...the flames, fanned by a westerly wind,...attacked...the King and Queen Granaries, owned by Messrs. Bennett and Co...the overpowering heat rendered it impossible to take any engines down the narrow thoroughfare of Rotherhithe-street...The flames continued to spread with destructive power until morning had far advanced, when of Messrs. Mellersh's premises not one stone remained upon another...whilst Messrs. Bennett's granaries were bare and tottering walls, and 70,000 quarters of valuable grain lay smouldering in the ruins'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.