Touching tributes to 183 children killed in Victoria Hall disaster as crisis fails to stop Sunderland remembering

Each year, at 11am on June 16, members of Sunderland Old Township Heritage Society (SOTHS), city dignitaries and local school children gather at the Victoria Hall Memorial in Mowbray Park to honour the lives of the 183 children who were crushed to death at a stampede for toys in a tragic accident which shocked the world.

Due to social distancing, the usual service was unable to take place, but individual members of SOTHS decided to visit at the usual time, not realising that other members would do the same.

The woman who held her own remembrance for the children of the...

Among them was Raymond Davison, who came up with the idea some years ago to honour the victims with an annual remembrance service, Bill Dove who brought flowers, as well as two passing policemen.

Pauline Hilton, treasurer at SOTHS, said: “It gladdened me to know that despite the fact that there were many still remembering the day at home or elsewhere, five or six people were at the memorial, each deciding to go alone at 11am to remember the 183 children.

“Our chairman had decided to do his daily exercise in the park and pass the memorial. He was surprised and delighted to see the handful gathered there.”

Many people held a private remembrance at home, with candles lit at 11am, including artist Lyn Killeen who displayed 183 jars in her garden, from a joint project she did with Living History Northeast to remember the tragedy.

Victoria Hall once stood in Toward Road and, on a fateful day on June 16, 1883, hosted a children’s entertainment show which hundreds of local children attended.

At the end of the show, an announcement was made that children with certain numbered tickets would get a prize. Worried about missing out, many of the estimated 1,100 children in the gallery stampeded toward the staircase leading downstairs.

At the bottom of the staircase, the door opened inward and had been bolted so as to leave a gap only wide enough for one child to pass at a time. Those at the front became trapped and were crushed to death by the weight of the crowd.

It was a horrific accident which wiped out a generation of children in the then town, with some families losing two or more children. At the time, Queen Victoria sent a message of condolence to the grieving families and contributed to a disaster fund, which was used to help build the memorial in Mowbray Park.

The devastating incident led to safety measures which are still in place today.

Following the tragedy, a Sunderland trainee architect, Robert Alexander Briggs, patented the new push bar release that we see on fire exits now and the accident prompted the passing of legislation to provide doors which opened outwards at all places of public entertainment.

It remains the worst incident of its kind in British history. The Victoria Hall remained in use until 1941 when it was destroyed by a German parachute bomb.

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