3-039-233 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Burning of Paris: the rue Royale, 1871. '...the insurgents, being undisturbed and feeling their case a hopeless one, fired the Tuileries, the Treasury, and the Rue Royale...There is no doubt whatever that these things were deliberately done by order of the Communist leaders; besides which many other fires were kindled in different parts of Paris by reckless men and women intent on revenge or plunder. The upper part of the Rue Royale, from the Place de la Madeleine to the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, was burnt on both sides. The fire here is shown looking down the street towards the Place de la Concorde. The firemen appear as they were employed, after the place was taken by the regular troops, in labouring with their pumps or spouts to extinguish the flames in the houses at the corners of the Rue St. Honoré and the Rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, which meet the Rue Royale at right angles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.