Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-11-25
LONDON A PREY TO FIRE.
Great Confagration RACES in a
Manufacturing District.
A Vast Area Burned Over Before the
Flames Are Checked-The Loss Is
Estimated mt $25,OOO,OOO - st.
Giles Church Damaged.

London. Nov. 20.-One of the most
disastrous fires in London's history
since the great fire of 1866 broke out in
large block of buildings lying east
ward of Aldersgate street and between
that thoroughfarc and Red Cross street
just after one o'clock Friday afternoon.
The flames were famed by a strong
wind and were fed by highly infamma-
BILE stocks of Christmas fancy goods
and flimsy dress materials of all de-
scriptions that filed every floor of the
siX-story buildings in the old street.
Consequently the confagration gained
Roadway with surprising rapidity and
was soon far beyond the possibility of
being checked by the few engines which
were early on the spot. For four hours
and half the flames had their own
way, and it was only after more than
p hundred engines had worked an hour
that the chief of the fire brigade sent
out the signal that the fire was under
control. At midnight the fire is still
the scene of great excitement. Fifty en-
gines are playing upon the ruins, wag-
ons are hurrying up coal and tons of
water are pouring into the fiery debris.
The scene must occupy the fire bril-
gade for several days, especially in view
of the grave danger of the collapse of
the shells of buildings which fall now
and again with loud report. The latest
accounts indicate that nearly a hundred
warehouses have been destroyed, while
the loss will probably exceed e 100000
The historic Church of st. Giles has
been much damaged, the principal dam
age being to the roof, the old windows,
the baptismal font and Millions statue.
1t is officially announced that $50
warehouses have been Quilted. Nearly
all the British fire insurance companies
are involved, and fire insurance shares
were practically unsaleable on the stock
exchange Friday afternoon after the
fire was well under way. Nearly 300
telephone wires have been cut, thus in
terrupting communication with many
of the big provincial towns. The fire
will cause an enormous advance in the
price of ostrich feathers, which rose 80
per cent. Friday evening. Two feather
firms alone have lost C $4,000 ($75, OOO).
A very large force of firemen and
about 90 engines worked at a high pres
sure all night. The district ravaged
by the fire is bounded by Aldersgate
street, Red Cross, Maidenhead court
and Bradford avenue, and includes the
intermediate streets, Jewin, Hamsell,
Well and Edmund, and Jewin crescent
The ravaged district also includes
mart nf Australian
ley, Cripple Gate churchyard, Wood
street square, Monkwell street, Nicholl
square and Fore street.
Hamsell street was the scene of the
outbreak of the fire, which was due to
an explosion in connection with a gas
engine on the premises of Walter Brown
d Co., mantel manufacturers at No. &c
on that thoroughfare. Their third fac
tory was crowded with girls when the
fire broke out, and it was instantly the
scene of a semipanic, the frightened
operatives rushing to the roof of the
building and there crossing to other
buildings and so effecting their escape
while the flames were pouring out of
the basement. In less than quarter of
an hour the flames had enveloped the
adjoining warehouse and thence they
leaped across the street to an enor-
nous paper warehouse which was fully
alight in less than ten minutes.
BY this time it was evident to the fire.
men that they were face to face with
a great disaster and general alarm was
sent out.
There was no abatement of the blaze
before $3.50 p. m. Then the check came
In Jewin street and in Well street.
where the collapse of a wall on the
right-hand side of that thoroughfare
was the means of saving the last build
ing in the street. The width of Red
Cross street, n comparatively broad
thoroughfare, also formed barrier
there.
BY dusk the picture presented was
extremely brilliant. Four streets were
blazing on both sides and there was
plenty to interest the gambling spirit
of the on-lookers, in betting as to
whether or not the venerable tower of
ST. Giles church could stand the hail
of sparks and burning fragments with
which it was enveloped.
Aldersgate street leads into Goswell road,
and from the latter runs Old street, 1.-THE
oldest way in or about London, and prob
ably older than London itself, forming the
road from the eastern to the western coun-
ties" John Milton went to live in Jewin
street, off Aldersgate street in 1861, and here
he married his third wife, The church of
st. Giles, Cripplegate, was built about the
year 100, close to the ancient city gate of
that name, where cripples were permitted
to congregate to ask for aims of travel
The church hn wing fro
in 1916, was then partly rebuilt. In it Oliver
Cromwell, then only q years old, was mar
red to Elizabeth Bourchier, August 90
1920. In this church are the tombs of John
Milton and his father and also the tomb of
Fox, who wrote the Book of Martyrs"
In the southwest corner of St. Giles
churchyard are the remains of bastion of
the old Roman wall which once surrounded
the city. The funeral services Of Daniel
Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe," were
held in ST. Giles church. The stained-glass
window injured by the fire was erected to
the memory of Milton by the late George w.
Childs, of Philadelphia. This venerable
church is approached by an archway in Red
Cross street, through which the fire swept