Victoria Hall disaster

Infobox News event
name=Victoria Hall disaster


caption=Poster advertising the variety show at which the children died
date= startdate|1883|06|16
time=3pm
place=Victoria Hall, Sunderland
notes=Stampede, crushed to death
casualties1=
notes=Stampede, crushed to death
casualties3=
notes="Summary": 183 children, aged between 3 to 14, were crushed to death in a stampede for the stage when free toys were offered. The disaster is the worst of its kind in British history.

The Victoria Hall Disaster, in which 183 children died, occurred in Sunderland, England on June 16 1883.

The Victoria Hall was a large concert hall on Toward Road facing onto Mowbray Park.

The disaster

On June 16 1883 a children's variety show was presented by travelling entertainers Mr and Mrs Fay.cite web|title=Sunderland's Victoria Hall Stampede|url=http://www.north-country.co.uk/victoria.htm|work=North Country Web|accessdate=2007-01-27] cite web|url=http://www.sunderlandecho.com/daily/Children39s-deaths-that-shocked-the.4183073.jp|title=Children's deaths that shocked the world|work=Sunderland Echo|accessdate=2008-06-13 |author=Sarah Stoner|year=2008]

At the end of the show an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a prize upon exit. At the same time entertainers began distributing gifts from the stage to the children in the stalls. Worried about missing out on the treats, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs. [cite web|title=Victims of the Victoria Hall Calamity|url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DUR/Sunderland/VictoriaHall.html|work=Genuki|accessdate=2007-01-27] At the bottom of the staircase, the door had been opened inward and bolted in such a way as to leave only a gap wide enough for one child to pass at a time. It is believed this was to ensure orderly checking of tickets.cite web|title=The Victoria Hall Disaster 1883|url=http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/libraries/Leaflets/Victorian%20Hall%20Disaster.pdf|work=City of Sunderland Library|accessdate=2007-01-27] With few accompanying adults to maintain order, the children surged down the stairs toward the door. Those at the front became trapped, and were crushed by the weight of the crowd behind them.

When the adults in the auditorium realised what was happening they rushed to the door - but could not open it fully as the bolt was on the children's side. Caretaker Frederick Graham ran up another staircase and diverted approximately 600 children to safety. Meanwhile, the other adults had resorted to pulling the children one by one through the narrow gap, before one man pulled the door from its hinges.

In his 1894 account of the incident, survivor William Codling, Jr., described the crush, and the realisation that people were dying:

accessdate=2007-01-27]

Newspaper reports at the time triggered a mood of national outrage and the resulting inquiry recommended that public venues be fitted with a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits, which led to the invention of 'push bar' emergency doors. This law still remains in full force to this day. No one was prosecuted for the disaster; the person responsible for bolting the door was never identified. The Victoria Hall remained in use until 1941 when it was destroyed by a German parachute bomb. [cite book|first=Bryan |last=Talbot |authorlink=Bryan Talbot |title=Alice in Sunderland: An Entertainment |Year=2007 |publisher=Jonathon Cape |location=London|isbn= 0-224-08076-8|pages=58-60]

References