3-065-686 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Burning of the Pantechnicon: the Motcomb-Street front, 1874. 'A fire took place yesterday week, in the fashionable quarter of Belgravia, which destroyed a vast amount of costly property, household furniture, pictures, statuary, porcelain, and other works of art, carriages, plate, and rare wines, belonging to many private families of the upper class...The building, which belonged to Messrs. Smith and Radermacher, was constructed of "fireproof " materials, and was used as a miscellaneous repository for property of all descriptions...At eleven o'clock the remaining portion of the building took fire, and it was then thought every minute that the surrounding houses in Motcomb-street would also be destroyed; but the wind happened to change, and the danger was over...The Pantechnicon was the largest, and esteemed the safest, "fireproof" warehouse for miscellaneous articles in London...As regards the insurance of the articles, the understanding with customers was that the firm were only responsible for safe custody, and that the insurance must be made apart from them. They fear, however, that the customers had such faith in the building being fireproof, that many of them would feel it unnecessary to insure their goods'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.