The Victoria Hall Disaster Sunderland 1883

In the summer of 1883 Mr Fay toured the schools of Sunderland looking for an audience for his forthcoming show. He promised that every child would have a chance of receiving a present after the event, which he billed as 'The Greatest Treat For Children Ever Given'. It was to be held at The Victoria Hall. Having set the entrance fee at 1d, so that as many children as possible could escape their often boring lives, for a few exciting hours. When the day finally arrived two thousand excited children trooped into Victoria Hall. Entranced by Mr Fays magic, boys and girls screamed with delight as his voice reached across the stage. Wide-eyed and expectant, cheering and hissing all at the right times, the children were quickly absorbed by the fantastic entertainer. Although one of Mr Fay's turns, involving vast quantities of smoke, caused several children to vomit, he quickly won them back and the children were in their glory as the final act saw Fay 'hatching' pigeons and allowing them to fly around the hall.

At 5.10pm, and the performance now at an end, as far as most of the children were concerned the best was yet to come, the giving out of presents. Presents were a rare treat to most of the children that were there. The Victoria Hall, situated on the corner of Toward Road and Murton Street, was split into three. The stalls seated about 1,000 people, the gallery had seating for 1,100 with room for about 400 more. On this particular afternoon, the upper circle was occupied by just one woman and her child, while the lower floors was full to bursting, with excited children wondering what present they would receive.

Mr. Fay was a man of his word, and along with his helpers began throwing small treats to the children in the body of the hall. Each throw resulted in a scrimmage as a beaming child secreted a gift, and others scampered for the next treat. The children in the gallery looked on in horror, as no treats were coming their way. The action was all downstairs. Suddenly the words they had been waiting for, "This way for presents." Children nearest the upstairs exits who heard the summons quickly slipped out.

They were followed down the flights of stairs hundreds of frenzied children desperate not to miss out on the promised freebies. Whether the entrance to the body of the hall was locked is not known, it may be that the doors were opened so that only one child at a time could pass through. No matter which, a backlog soon occurred.

Victoria Hall

The first people on the scene believed that three children tried to pass through together and became wedged in the doorway. A flood of children then fell head over heels, one on top of the other. Screams and shrieks echoed down the staircases until all the air was squeezed from the tiny lungs, but more still pressed down from above.

Mr Graham, the manager stated "When I approached the lower door I heard some fearful screams, groans and noises of struggling. I rushed to the door and attempted to open it, and found I could not do so. The bolt was in the socket about two feet from the door frame, and the opening was jammed up nearly as high as my head with the bodies of children. The manager rushed his way upstairs to another route and came down stairways crammed with children. When we reached the forth step from the bottom we found the children packed in a mass from that place all over the whole of the landing below, there seemed to be hundreds of them.

At first I did not think that any were dead, but when we tried to release them I discovered my mistake. I tried at first to take out children from the thickest of the mass, but they were so tightly wedged in that I could scarcely move them without risk of further injury to their poor limbs. So I began by picking out those little ones from the top who groaned, moved their limbs or showed other signs of life.

Two gentlemen, one named Raine, quickly came to my assistance and we handed the injured children through the window or the door to a constable, who ran with them to the porch of the building and placed them in the open air. We worked very hard, but the children were lying wedged together eight deep and it was very difficult to get at them." Some rather confused and contradictory statements were taken from the survivors. 12 year old Thomas Wilson, who was at the back of the main hall, stated that a man on the stage told those downstairs that presents were available in the gallery.

At the door a man was standing giving away presents but when the man saw a boy with five or six presents he said this will never do and bolted the door. He then threw some presents towards the street and told the children to leave via the Toward Road door.

Thomas managed to get a round whistle and made his way home, safely. Those upstairs were not so lucky. Mr Simpson wrote to the local newspaper about his son's experiences: My eldest boy was in the doomed gallery. His story of the tragedy is that before the close of the performance he thought he would leave as he had sense to know that there would be a crush on the way out. He descended the stairs a few minuets before the finish.

When he came to the fatale door he found it shut and bolted. He tried to remove the bolt, but he could not, and before he knew down came the human mass on the top of him. How he was saved is a miracle to me. He felt as though he was falling asleep. He was carried out into the hall, and by kind aid and medical skill he was restored. Now if the door had been two foot open, and the bolt in to allow one to pass at a time, he would have gone straight out.

The door had been shut and the bolt put down, and there was not a soul to guard or look after this in any way. 9 year old George Howitt was also in the gallery, and he too left through a door which had been left some eighteen inches open. He watched as a man give presents away and then noticed that the door was only a little bit open. George had been sitting on a form with Frank and Emily Morris, Emily was killed and Frank fainted but later regained consciousness. 11 year old Inez Coe was indirectly spared because of her disability. She went down the stairs early to avoid the crush and was told by a man at the bottom that she could not leave until the others from upstairs had come down.

Once the stampede started, Inez snuggled into the corner and used her crutch as a crash barrier. She saw a boy fall down and others trip over him and she squeezed into the corner as bodies piled up around her. After what must have seemed like hours, she saw a man reaching down to pull out the dead bodies that surrounded her. Screaming out take me out before the dead one's I'm alive. Inez was hoisted clear. On reaching the outside she fainted but was revived with a bucket of cold water.

The tragedy had such a traumatizing effect on it's survivors that ten years later, Sidney Duncan, aged ten at the time of the incident, could recall the events as if they had happened the previous day. "Within half a minuet I was forced off my feet and almost buried in the struggling, dying mass. Only the cries of a few who were being crushed in the pack behind could be heard. In front comparative silence reigned but the writhing of the expiring little ones were fearful to behold. I witnessed all, and lay unable to even aid myself." Fully five minuets elapsed before assistance arrived.

From the contradictory statements it seems that , in the rush for presents both from the gallery and the main hall, a member of staff must have bolted the door. The intention being to keep the two sections of children separate. This action was to cost the people of Sunderland dearly. 183 children (114 boys and 69 girls) were crushed or trampled to death and another 100 seriously injured. Most of the victims were aged between seven and ten, but two were just three years old. The mangled bodies, many barley recognizable, were laid out in rows for identification. More than one family lost all of their children.

Queen Victoria A man and his wife anxiously scanned the rows of the dead, his face blanched, and without showing any further signs of emotion pointed to a little figure, that's one. A few yards later he pointed again, that's another. Then as he came to the last child in the row, he lost composure and burst into loud sobs "My God! All my family, gone." Queen Victoria wrote to the clergymen of the town, who relayed her message of condolence at the subsequent funerals and services throughout the town. Let's hope her words come true, 'Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the Kingdom of God'.