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The Victoria Hall disaster occurred on 16 June 1883 at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, England, when a stampede for free toys caused 183 children (aged between 3 and 14 years old) to be crushed to death due to
compressive asphyxia Asphyxia or asphyxiation is a condition of deficient supply of oxygen to the body which arises from abnormal breathing. Asphyxia causes generalized hypoxia, which affects primarily the tissues and organs. There are many circumstances that can ...
.


Events

On 16 June 1883, a children's
variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...
was presented by travelling entertainers Mr. and Mrs. Fay. The travelling magic show, consisting of a variety of conjuring tricks and illusions, passed without incident, except when a puff of smoke from one of the tricks "disagreed" with some of those in the front row, and caused a few children to be sick. At the end of the show, an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would be presented with a
prize A prize is an award to be given to a person or a group of people (such as sporting teams and organizations) to recognize and reward their actions and achievements.
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 Gallery or The Gallery may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Art gallery ** Contemporary art gallery Music * Gallery (band), an American soft rock band of the 1970s Albums * ''Gallery'' (Elaiza album), 2014 album * ''Gallery'' (Gr ...
surged toward the staircase leading downstairs. At the bottom of the staircase, the door opened inward and had been bolted so as to leave a gap only wide enough for one child to pass at a time. It is believed this was to ensure orderly checking of tickets. 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 to death by 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. Caretaker Frederick Graham tried in vain to disentangle the pile-up, then ran up another staircase and diverted approximately 600 children to safety by another exit. Meanwhile, other adults pulled the children one by one through the narrow gap, before one man wrenched the door off its hinges. In his 1894 account, survivor William Codling, Jr., described the crush and the realisation that people were dying:


Aftermath

The compressive asphyxia as a result of the stampede killed 183 children between 3 and 14 years of age.
Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...
sent a message of condolence to the grieving families and contributed to the disaster fund. Donations sent from all over Britain totalled £5,000 (equivalent to £ in ) and were used for the children's funerals and a memorial in Mowbray Park. The memorial, of a grieving mother holding a dead child, was later moved to Bishopwearmouth Cemetery where it gradually fell into disrepair and was vandalised. In 2002, the marble statue was restored at a cost of £63,000 and moved back to Mowbray Park with a protective canopy. Newspaper reports at the time triggered a mood of national outrage and the resulting inquiry led to legislation that public entertainment 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 force. No one was prosecuted for the disaster and the person responsible for bolting the door was never identified. The Victoria Hall remained in use until 1941 when it was destroyed by a World War II parachute bomb. Annual memorial services were set up in 2010 by the Sunderland Old Township Heritage Society.


Depiction in media

The disaster inspired a poem by Scottish poet
William McGonagall William Topaz McGonagall (March 1825 – 29 September 1902) was a Scottish poet of Irish descent. He gained notoriety as an extremely bad poet who exhibited no recognition of, or concern for, his peers' opinions of his work. He wrote about 2 ...
entitled "The Sunderland Calamity".


See also

* Barnsley Public Hall disaster *
Laurier Palace Theatre fire The Laurier Palace Theatre fire, sometimes known as the Saddest fire or the Laurier Palace Theatre crush, occurred in a movie theatre in Montreal, Quebec on Sunday, January 9, 1927. 78 people were killed. The theatre was located at 3215 Saint Ca ...
*
Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal human crush during a football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in the ...


References

{{Human stampedes 1883 disasters in the United Kingdom 1883 in England 19th century in County Durham Disasters in England History of County Durham History of Tyne and Wear Human stampedes in the United Kingdom Sunderland