#ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENTRY GARDEN CODE#

Although very faint the image above depicts the ruins of the theatre.Ī clearer image can be found on the Victoria and Albert Museum website. Even the Beef Steak Club did not escape unscathed, it lost its stock of wine which could not be replaced! The Coroner for Westminster, Anthony Gell Esq. observed that ‘ in his opinion this melancholy event was accidental and that there was not the slightest blame on the theatre’s management’. The press reported ‘on the whole, there has not been any domestic catastrophe more fatal for many years, even the disaster at the Old Bailey and at Sadler’s Wells, not excepted.’ Properties completely destroyed on Bow Street included numbers 9 -15, with 16 & 17 being very badly damaged.

Initial reports stated that as many as 20 lives were lost with far more seriously injured casualties.

Many others were conveyed to nearby hospitals. The newspaper provided gruesome details of the dead including 11 mutilated bodies in the grounds of St Paul’s church, Covent Garden. According to an eyewitness who was setting up on Covent Garden market, there was an ‘ unwholesome smell of the London smoak‘ which was thought to be coming from a local brewhouse this was not the case and the fire was discovered by a poor girl who had made her bed in the porch of the theatre. The wind changed direction and did, however, cause the loss of several buildings in the vicinity. The fire was also in danger of spreading due to a westerly wind blowing towards properties on the nearby Bow Street, however, that apparently was short-lived. Unfortunately, the day prior to the fire the mains water supply had been cut off due to some complaints about an irregular supply so work was in progress to rectify this fault, therefore the fire engines struggled to provide sufficient water to dampen the fire. A small amount of scenery survived, but all the wardrobe was destroyed. The books, accounts, deeds and cash were saved due to the exertions of Mr Hughes, the treasurer.

#ROYAL OPERA HOUSE COVENTRY GARDEN CODE#

In order to prevent such fires, The London Fire Code stated that eight blankets soaked with water were to be kept on each side of the stage which could be used immediately should anything catch fire this is apparently where the term ‘a wet blanket’ originated.Īccording to the newspapers of the day, in particular, the Morning Chronicle of the 21st September 1808, the fire began at 4am and within three hours the whole theatre was demolished. Covent Garden Theatre from Microcosm of London, courtesy of British Libraryįires were a relatively common occurrence in theatres at that time due to the lighting and the draperies, the vast majority happening purely by accident. The fire raged so fiercely it almost took with it other buildings including Drury Lane Theatre, but that one was to survive for a further year before it suffered the same fate. In the early hours of the 20th of September 1808 a fire broke out and the theatre was razed to the ground, taking with it Handel’s own organ and many of his manuscripts. As altered prior to opening on 15th September 1794.

Over the next sixty years or so there were various alterations to it. The first theatre on the site opened as the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden on the 7th of December 1732 with the first play performed being that of William Congreve’s, The Way of the World.

Royal opera house coventry garden