FabSwingers.com forum: Victoria Hall Disaster

By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

It's beautiful day today and I know so many people have been so upset by the Texas school shooting, 19 children callously murdered along with 2 school teachers. Its so hard to make sense of such wickedness.

This isn't a post specifically about that event but how we all recognise that the death of a child(ren) as being the ultimate tragedy. Its a devastating loss which leaves an unfillable void in those parents hearts. As well as the Grandparents/Uncles/Aunts and so on.

I guess we're all living in an age were we are processing information/news 24/7, we are all perhaps traumatised as well as being enlightened by the constant breaking news. The full catastrophe of life?

This leads me to share tragedy I only recently found about which was the Victoria Hall disaster, this occurred on the 16th June 1883.

On that day the children of Sunderland all visited the Victoria Hall to be entertained by travelling entertainers Mr & Mrs Fay. I'm sure we can all imagine in those days life was pretty tough and money was tight. The penny admittance for the show would have been a heavy burden for their parents

The show certainly brought fun & joy to those children's hearts with illusion and conjuring tricks. The show went without any incidents until the entertainers started to throw toys and sweets into the stalls.

It was then the children in the dress circle and gallery all surged to the staircase leading down stairs. At the bottom of the stairs the door opened inward and was bolted to only leave a gap wide enough for one child to pass through.

There wasn't enough accompanying adults to maintain order as 1,100 children surged towards the door. Those at the front become trapped and were crushed to death with the weight of the crowd behind them.

When the adults in the auditorium realised what was happening they rushed to the door, but they could not open it fully as the bolt was on the children's side.

183 children died that day all aged between 3 and 14 years old. So unbelievably sad.

When I'm in Sunderland as I am today I visit the Victoria Hall Disaster Memorial in Mowbray Park. I feel moved looking at the Memorial of the Mother holding her dead child.

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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago

Gosh that’s so sad

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By *jorkishMan
over a year ago

Seaforth

Horrifying. So sad

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By *instonandLadyAstorCouple
over a year ago

Not where we seem to be...

Fuck.

Not enough words.....

Winston

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Unbelievably sad, there was entire Bible class from a school that died that day, thirty children in all.

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By *andonmessMan
over a year ago

A world all of his own

Oh god that's dreadful

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By *he love catsCouple
over a year ago

South Wales

Thats terrible just as bad as the Aberfan disaster that killed 144 in 1966.

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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago

Well out of that tragedy I guess human ingenuity kicked in. Robert Alexander Briggs an engineer living in Sunderland at the time was so shocked by the Victoria Hall Disaster he vowed no such event should ever occur again.

Robert Alexander Briggs invented the push bar emergency doors, which allows users to open up a door by pushing a bar. I guess we will never know how many lives this man saved.

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By *rDiscretionXXXMan
over a year ago

Gilfach

Here's a short documentary that I saw about it recently:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCics68FEMg

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