3-071-140 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Effects of Flood at Lambeth during the Storm: room in Princes-Square, Lambeth, 1881. '...the hurricane caused the flood tide to flow with a velocity which foreboded danger, but soon after that fears were entertained that the water would overtop the wharves fronting [the Thames. The tide was] running up at the rate of five knots an hour, and, owing to the frozen state of the water, the river was much swollen...a lamentable scene was witnessed in Princes-square, Commercial-road...At this spot, some hundreds of people reside in and near the square, which is very low. The water, carrying large blocks of ice, was seen rushing down from Messrs. Davey and Co.'s wharf...The tide, which was still running strongly, forced the water into the main thoroughfares, inundating the dwellings of the poorer classes. One of the sketches we have engraved shows the interior of two rooms, front and back, of a house in Princes-square, half-filled with dirty snow after the water had retired...At four o'clock the flood had reached several of the main sewers in Waterloo-road. The destruction of property will amount to several thousand pounds...The afternoon's tide was the highest ever recorded in the River Thames, reaching 4 ft. 10 in. above Trinity high-water mark'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.