The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-08 00:00:00

evening by a body of commercial men as not by
any means extravagant. People's minds, in fact,
have of late years become accustomed to these
colossal notions, when telegraphic messages are
flashing instantaneously between Cornhill and the
Boulevards ; when electric wires can be " paid
out" in a gale of wind to Ostend ; when autumnal
excursions are made not to Boulogne or Weston-
super-mare, but to Alexandria and Constantinople ;
when millions upon millions worth of gold can be
shipped to the mother country from Australia ;
and when the Celestial Empire is being overrun
from Yunnan to Mongolia by an army of Chinese
revolutionists.

At such an epoch in the world's history the
opening of an establishment, like the Lord Warden
Hotel at Dover, rises to an importance far above
the sordid level of a mere commercial speculation.
It must be regarded as something worthier of
consideration—as another link, for instance, in
that great chain which is binding together the
nations of the earth, and bringing them into more
immediate association. In speaking thus we are
guilty of no exaggeration whatever. We are not
giving utterance to merely fantastic hyperboles.
We are talking of plain matters of fact. We are
simply evincing our appreciation of what we be-
lieve in our heart and in our conscience to be at
once the channel and the security of the great
civilising movement of the age—that vast railway
system through which the marvellous powers of
the steam-engine and the electric telegraph are
rendered subservient to the social, political, phy-
sical, and intellectual advancement of the human
•
race.

TERRIBLE OCCURRENCE IN THE
STRAND, AND LOSS OF LIFE.

This morning, between the hours of eight and
nine, the greatest excitement was caused in the
Strand, in the immediate vicinity of Norfolk-street,
in consequence of the following frightful occurrence,
which was attended with fatal results to three per-
sons, the destruction of a vast amount of valuable
property, and serious injuries to one or two other
persons.

In order to make the account intelligible, it is
necessary to state that, at the corner of Arundel-
street, the opposite side to the Whittington Club-
house, a great number of men have been employed
by Mr. Lucas, the contractor, under the direction
of Mr. Abrahams, the surveyor, in preparing the
foundations for an extensive range of premises for
the Messrs. Smith, the well-known newsvenders.
The house adjoining the spot first named, was
numbered 184, in the Strand, was tenanted by
Mr. Thompson, a tailor, Mr. Henderson, a
daugerreotype artist, and several other families.
Fortunately, however, with the exception of Mr.
Thompson and his family, the other residents
were out of town, or the loss of life which we
should have to record would have been far more
serious than it really has been.
At a few minutes after eight o'clock, a young
man named George Dunn, proceeded as was his
daily custom to open the shop. Having taken
down one of the shutters, the glass commenced
cracking. At that moment a man was driving
one of Smith's express carts along the Strand, and
hearing the glass breaking, he called out to Dunn,
" You have broken a window, have you ?" He
then noticed Dunn enter the passage, and at the
same instant the whole of the lofty building fell
with a crash resembling a peal of thunder, which
so terrified the horse in Messrs. Smith's cart, that
it refused to move an inch. At the same time
articles of furniture, heaps of bricks, and heavy
pieces of timber fell, some into the street, and a
.onsiderable quantity amongst the men employed
on the adjoining property.
For the space of nearly five minutes it was almost
impossible to tell the amount of mischief done, for
the whole neighbourhood became completely ob-
scured in dust. As soon, however, as the dust had
in some measure cleared away, it was found that
not one brick of the building was left standing,
and that every person who was in the house at the
time was buried beneath the debris. Information
was at once sent for the aid of the police, and.
forthwith Mr. Superintendent Pearce and Inspec-
tors Dodd and Wilkinson arrived with a powerful
body of men of the F division. The officers at
once stopped. the thoroughfare, and then com-
menced searching the ruins for the missing parties.
As soon as they had removed a few things from
the pavement they heard the cries of a female be-
low. Mr. Dodd upon removing the grating over
the vault that runs under the pavement, found
that the cries proceeded from that part of the pre-
mises. This person was found to be a young
woman, and Mr. Thompson's niece. By removing
the rubbish, the police and the men engaged on
the adjoining works succeeded in rescuing the
young woman, who was terribly alarmed, but for-
tunately uninjured. She then stated that she was
certain Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were in the ruins,
as they were going to sit down to breakfast, when
she went to the cellar to draw some ale. It was
exceedingly fortunately that she did so, or she
would have been numbered with the dead.

The most strenuous exertions were made by all
present to get to the other unfortunate persons,
and after the lapse of some time, James Roe, fore-
man to Mr. Lucas, was found amongst the ruins
that had fallen into the vacant space in which the
men were at work, with his right thigh and leg
broken. He was forthwith placed on the police
stretcher and removed to King's College Hospital,
where he remains in a state of great agony. Every
one present laboured in a most praiseworthy man-
ner, and after the space of an hour the bodies of
Mr. and Mrs. Thompson were found terribly
crushed about the head and shoulders. They were
likewise placed on stretchers and taken to King's
College Hospital. The whole medical staff of the
institution was at once in attendance, but after
examining the bodies, pronounced life to be in
each extinct.

The police, the workmen of Mr. Lucas, &c.,
were next engaged till past 10 o'clock, when they
at length discovered the body of George Dunn, the
shopman, which wasfound terribly crushed and quite
dead. This body was likewise removed to King's
College Hospital. It is presumed that this unfor-
tunate person, on finding the glass breaking, per-
ceived the house was sinking, and that he entered
the premises again for the purpose of alarming his
employer, when the structure fell as he was passing
along the passage, and by that means lost his life.
The area of the intended new building for the
Messrs. Smith is a most extensive one, and there
can be no doubt that the catastrope was occasioned
by the operations for the foundation. There have
been for some few weeks at work on this site thirty
labourers in the employ of Mr. Lucas, and under
the immediate inspection of Mr. Abrahams, of
Howard-street, Strand, the surveyor to the Duke
of Norfolk's estate.

It would seem that every precaution had been
taken for securing Mr. Thompson's house by shoring
it up, but there is too much reason to fear that the
digging for the foundation was carried too deep for
the props to have any secure standing, and that,
consequently, their base being undermined, they
gave way, and the house thus suddenly deprived of
its main support fell as above described.
Information of the melancholy event has been
dispatched to the coroner's office, but the time is
not yet fixed for holding the inquest.
It was at first reported that no fewer than 16
persons had been prematurely hurried into eternity
by this accident, which, in all probability, would
have been the number had the other families living
in the house not been out of town. The house
was in the best state of repair, as some few years
since over 3001. was expended on it.
The latest intelligence from tho hospital reports
James Roe, Mr. Lucas's foreman, to be in a most
critical state.