The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-17 00:00:00

Destruction of the Pimlico Steam Whr.el

Works by Fire.

ESTIMATED DAMAGE, OVER £lOO,OOO.

The most extensive conflagration which has occurred for
r many years past in the fashionable neighbowhood known as
Belgravia, broke out yesterday (Sunday) morning, and was
not entirely extinguished at a late hour last evening, end
there seemed every chence of the fire lasting all night.
The scene of this terrible misfortune, for such it may with
truth be termed, on eccount of the great many men who
w ill be thrown out of employment, and the vast amount of
property reduc d to iutrs, WPM a large space of ground over
two acres. There was erected thereon some 25 years ago a
spacious brick and stone building, or more correctly spet4 'ng
a series of buildings, tin a lof,y shaft towering high above
the our rounding house tops. This factory when fi st opened
was used re a la-ge bakery end brandy distillery. The con-
cern, however, Wiled out a perfect failu-e, end for some
time the premises remained untenanted, but at length
Messrs Smith Par:rey end Smith, took possession of the
plant, which has S;r2C2 then k en tcrincd the Pim'ico Patent
Steam Wheel- ivorks. The property had a frontage end large
entrance gates in the main road named B2l6ravi,-pace, and
on one side were the extensive building premises belong'ne;
to Messrs. Trollope and Sous, of Parliament-slreet, West-
minster, termed the Bolgrave Works. How these extensive
premises did not sharte the same fate as the Wheel-works, as
will be seen below, is a perfect mystery, u-.less it was ow :ng
to the almost superhuman exer;,:ons of the firemen.

From information obtained of the manager of the Wheel
works, it appeared that on the ground and basement floors
were the cool depots, the boiler-house, end engine roams.
Of the latter there ere three, end the engines being charged,
a great deal of excitement prevailed at first lest they should
explede and scatter destruction amongst human life in every
direction. Fortunately some of the hands employed at the
works, more courageous than others, rushed into the engine
rooms and relieved the safety valves, which allowed the
steam to blow off, and consequently no explosion occurred.
The diecovely of the fire was made by Police-constable
Harder, No. 263 of the B division, by noticing an unusual
body of black smoke hovering ever the northern side of the
works. Feeling convinced that the place wry on fire, end
there being oily a watchman left in charge of the premises,
he went and aroused him, end opening the front gates a
fear:ol scene presented itselt, for immense sheets of flume
were rolling round the lower floors. The watchman at once
ran to ascertain what part of the premises was then on fire,
end being suddenly misted it Wei feared that he had
perished. Conductors Cotterill, Brooker, end Rowland ar-
rived with the Royal Society's escapes, and the men went
into a building in:which it was thought the man had en-
tered, and whilst searching for him the roof of the building
fell in a state of thorough ignition, so that they were
obliged to abandon their praiseworthy but dangerous at'.
tempt. Fortunately the man had by some means succeeded
in leaving the room, and has since been seen alive and un-
injured.
7he first engine that ar.ive3 was that from the Horses
ferry-road brigade station, which was followed by Plummer,
the engineer of St. John the Evangelist, with the parish
engine. The powerful land steamer termed the Torrent,
from Hodges' Distillery, et Lambeth, next attended, under
the command of Lieut. Becker. Numerous manual power
engines of the London Br:gade, and those of Shand, Mason,
and Co.'s lend steamers, with the Princess Royal lend
steamer, from Tooley-street, followed in rapid succession.
By the time this powerful force arrived the fl macs had
made fear:el progress, for the whole of the engineering
works, iron stores, and pressing rooms, were enveloped in a
broad sheet of fire. The three engine houses, the boiler-
houses, the stack workshops, the spoke-rooms, the tire-
houses, and stock shops were all encircled with flrrno,
Owing to the proximity of Messrs. Trollop's works, strong
fears were entertained for their safety, end in order to pre-
serve them from dest-uction the branches of several of the
engines were carried through those works, which enabled
the firemen to scatter the water from the Grosvenor Cs oal
and else from the mains of the Chelsea Company in such
directions as to prevent the flames fro.n rolling over into
those premises. If they had once become ignited there is
no doubt but the conflagration would have lapped round
nearly a dcz :n lofty houses in the Belgrave-rcad.
By five o'clock the fire was at its height, and a vender or
more fearful sight at a fire has rarely been witnessed, for the
flames were mounting into the air high above the lofty fur-
nace shaft, illuminating not only the whole of the metropolis,
but bringing out in splendid relief the Houses of Parliament,
the venerable abbey at Westminster, Lambeth Palace, and
many other lofty edifices. This caused persons from all
quarters to rush to the scene of conflagration. Fortunately
Captain Harrison, of the Commissioners of Police, a ith Mr
Superintendent Gibbs, and Inspectors Caplen, Humphries,
and Rolls, with a strong muster of the B division of police,
and a reser ye, came up, and took possession of the thorough-
fares, and thereby kept a way clear for the firemen to pur-
sue their dangerous avocation, and at the ranee time kept
the populace off the reach of falling walls. All of a sudden
the heavy brick and stone walls parted asunder, which
allowed the roof to bend in the centre, and then the two fell
to the ground with a crash resembling a discharge of ord-
nance, Nothing less than the downfall of the lofty shalt
could then be expected, for the roof, which was a flat one,
had broken away at the side of the she ft, and the brickwork
on either side, which to some extent acted as stays, had in
raany places bulged to a considerable extent; in fact, the
archways over the aide windows werecracked by the intense
heat, and the brickwork in more than one place had dropped
to the ground. The land steamers were kept at work with
the greatest vigour, as well ao several others of manual
power; but still the work of devastation continued, and the
fire had actually entered the roof of the Victoria Itailwas
Station, and was doing great damage to the side wall
and the skylights. Fortunately the flames in that direction
were soon cut off; but the main body of fire continued to
rage in spite of the many thousand gallons of water that
were momentarily scattered upon the flames; and even at
six o'clock last evening the fire was far from being extin-
guished, although all fears of any further extension of
mischief was over. The only thing now to be apprehended is
lest the lofty fir nace shaft should be shaken down by the
wind and fall, If such were to take place it is impossible to
tell what might be the consequences.
A very careful inquiry was made during the day for the
purpose of ascertaining, if possible, how the catastrophe
occurred. The result of the investigation was that the pre-
mises were for a long time past left in charge of the watch-
man, whose duty it was to go over the premises every night
at 11 o'clock, to see whether they wore perfectly safe end
free from fire. He performed that duty at the usual hour en
Saturday night. end he states that then he saw nothing
wrong, and could not detect the siga of fire. Great as the
loss is, one very fortunate circumstance is connected with it
as the whole of the drawings of the models have been pre-
served in one of the patent defiance firc-proof safes, and some
thousand pounds worth of wheels and heavy iron presses
have been saved, as well as the spacious storehouse on the
eastern side of the yard, which was filled with wheels end
other property, but in spite of this the manager of the works
states that the damage done would exceed £100,1,00, and his
opinion was that the firm was not insured for a sing le
shilling. This, it is hoped, may tura out to be incorrect.
One thing, however, is quite certain, that a vast number of
workmen will be throws out of employment for a length •
ened time.

As late as 6 o'clock last night. 'he Victoria station was
partly filled with smoke, and the vapour was rolling in
dense volumes completely over the houses in Windsor-tcr-
race, and the grounds of Messrs Elliot, the brewers, in
Castle-lanP, Westminster.

ROYAL GALLERY OF ILLUSTRATION.—The pro-
ductim of a new opera di camera by Macfarren, after the
great success of " Jesay Lea," is an event among the musi•
cal patrons of the Gallery of Illus:ration. Report spenks
well of "The Sergeants Legacy," to be produced on Wed-
!Lesley nes". Mr Oxenford has written the libretto. Miss
Robertine Henderson makes her first appearance this sea-
son, with Mr Whiffin, Mr J. A. Shaw, and Miss Poole.
There is a promise of an occasional representation of Balfe's
"Sleeping Queen."
THE CHANCELLOR CF THE EXCHEQUER'S SON
FOR CHESTER.—We understand that Mr William Henry
Gladstone, eldest son of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone,
Chancellor of the Exchequer, will be brought forward at
the next general election as a candidate for the representa-
tion of the city of Chester. It is believed that Mr W. H.
Gladstone, who is a liberal, will obtain the support of the
Marquis of Westminster, whose influence in Chester is
paramount, as well as that of other Whig families. One of
the present members for Uhester is Earl Grosvenor, son of
the Marquis of Westminster, and Mr Gladstone will, of
course, be brought out in opposition to Capt. Humberston,
the Conservative member. Mr Gladstone was born in June,
1840, and is consequently in his 24th year. He has not yet
offered himself as a candidate for any other constituency.—
Liverpoo! Daily Courier, _ _

THE NESS SALMON FISHINGS.—The period for
angling ends here on Friday, and most other rivers
in the North close at the same time. The season has been
on the whole remarkably good, and the abundance of fish
in the Ness at present, waiting for the time when they are
to frequent tl.o fords, amply fulfils the expectations formed
of the effect of withdrawing the stake nets in the estuary,
and bringing next fishing to a close some weeks earlier than
under Home Drummond's Act. No ono whose experience
dates from the year 1823 has seen such an appearance of
fish in the Ness. They still continue to take well, though
the river is exceedingly low and the weather has been re-
markably blight. Eut there has been this peculiality in
the angling season, that the fish seem to make at once for
the upper reaches of the river, and are shy to take in all
the lower water. The same fact has been observed this
year in the Conon,— _lnverness Courier.
ATTEMPTED MURDER.—At the village of East
Moor, near Wakefield, on Fiiday last, George Atkinson, a
collier employed at Methley, near Leeds, made an attempt
to murder his wile by cutting her throat with a razor. For -
t unately she made her es3lTo before he completed his put.-
' pose, The wound he inflicted was only euperficial- Ills
wife, to whom he had been married for 13 years, lift him
some time ago, and was living with a collier named John
Young, at East Moor, and it was at the house of the latter
that the attempt to mutat r was made. Atkinson is in CUB.
tody,