3-065-687 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Burning of the Pantechnicon: the fire, seen from Belgrave-Square, 1874. Destruction of a warehouse in London. '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...In less than a quarter of an hour several steam and manual engines, with a number of firemen under Captain Shaw, were on the spot. The fire at that time was not very large, but the place was very difficult of access, the smoke was overpowering, and the water supply, at first, was extremely short...The reflection by this time was visible for miles round - even, it is said, as far as Twickenham - and drew to the neighbourhood an immense crowd...From six o'clock until ten in the evening the fire raged with unabated fury, and the whole of London was lit up with the reflection of the flames'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.