by Dixe Wills
The coroner’s court also found that the theatre was a veritable tinderbox. Not only were laths and match-boarding used in places where their use was expressly prohibited by fire regulations, the building was also lit throughout by gas and candles rather than by electricity. Compounding this, the height of the ceiling above the gallery – just six feet – meant that any smoke would quickly fill the space and choke anyone unfortunate enough to be in it. If this were not enough, there was just one stairway out of the gallery, and the exit door that led to it opened inwards. There had been plans for a second stairway that would have passed through a shop below and out to the street, but this would have meant forgoing the rent from the shop, so it was never built.
The proceedings unearthed a catalogue of deficiencies in the safety measures at the theatre, for which the architect Charles Phipps, the owners of the theatre, the city surveyor and the Exeter magistrates who had been responsible for granting a licence to the theatre were clearly at fault to varying degrees. However, the jury returned a verdict of accidental death on the 186 victims of the fire (a figure that is likely to be an underestimate). The foreman of the jury added that the magistrates should be censured for their lack of care in ensuring that the theatre was in a fit state to open its doors to the public, and the theatre-owners were at fault for installing an unauthorised pillar and a ticket box, both of which hampered egress from the theatre.
In terms of loss of life, the Royal Theatre fire was Exeter’s worst ever peacetime disaster and Britain’s worst ever theatre fire. Nearly 100 children lost one or both parents, and many were consequently shipped off to orphanages (Exeter having none of its own).
Although the fire was not the only calamity that took place in Britain around that time, it was one that caused a particular horror among the population – even Queen Victoria sent money to the disaster fund for the victims – and was instrumental in forcing the government into action.
The catastrophe led to the setting up of council-funded fire brigades up and down the country. These replaced the private companies who had, up until then, provided fire services in a much more patchy manner and were often wholly inadequate when faced with major blazes. The Exeter Fire Brigade was established in March 1888. The city was also handed its first electricity-generating station, with the result that the next Theatre Royal to be built was not lit by gas but by much safer electricity.
Legislation was introduced in 1890 that considerably toughened up safety measures in theatres and other places of public entertainment. Henceforth, all theatres were compelled to install a safety curtain and mark their exit doors clearly. Even half a century after the event, the Home Office manual on ‘Safety Requirements in Theatres and Other Places of Public Entertainment’ cited the Theatre Royal disaster as being one from which lessons had been learnt.
Back in October 1886, the theatre’s lessee, Mr Sidney Herberte-Basing, wrote a piece of doggerel which he recited at its inauguration. It included the lines: ‘If there be faults, and faults there are no doubt/We’ll rectify them as we find them out.’ Had he been as good as his word, particularly when it came to the slapdash procedures that led to the carelessness over the calico mediums, those 186 lives would not have been extinguished. The only consolation granted to those who lost loved ones that night was that the legislation brought in after the fire would doubtless go on to save many more lives than that.
Index
A
Adelin, William 1
Æthelred II 1
Alam, Shah 1
Alcott, Louisa May 1
Alexander I Obrenović, King 1
Alexander III, Pope 1, 2
Alfred Bird and Sons Ltd 1
Algonquin 1–2
Ali, Asif 1
Ali, Mohammed 1
Analytical Engine 1, 2–3
Andrews, Thomas 1
Appleton, James 1
Arbuthnot, Dr 1
Archer, John 1
Aris, Michael 1–2
arsenic poisoning 1–2
Aslam, Ali Ahmed 1
astronomy 1–2
Atkins, Sir Richard 1
Aung San, General 1, 2
Aung San Suu Kyi 1–2
Ayscough, Rev William 1
B
Babbage, Charles 1, 2–3
Babur 1–2
Baird, Julia 1
baking powder 1
Balding, Clare 1
Balkan Wars (1912–13) 1
Barrie, J. M. 1
Bartos, Karl 1
Battle of Arques (1589) 1–2
Baxter, Raymond 1
Baynes, Rear-Admiral Robert L. 1–2
Beagle, HMS 1–2
The Beatles 1–2
Becket, Thomas 1–2
Behn, Aphra 1
Benn, Tony 1
Benz, Karl 1
Bernard of Chartres 1
Bird, Alfred 1–2
Bird, Elizabeth 1–2
Birrell, Augustine 1
Bismarck, Otto von 1
Blackburn, Jemima 1
Blair, Tony 1
Blunt, Anthony 1–2, 3
Bodley Head Publishers 1–2
Bonaparte, Napoléon 1
Borchers 1
Borden Inc 1, 2–3
Boswell, James 1
Bowie, David 1
Boyle, Robert 1
Brearley, Harry 1–2
Breville 1
British Stainless Steel Association 1
British Telecom 1
Broc, Ranulf de 1
Brontë, Anne 1
Brontë, Charlotte 1
Brown Firth Laboratories 1–2
Bruce, Kathleen 1
Brustlein 1
Bryant and May 1
Buchanan, James 1
Bunyan, John 1–2, 3
Burgess, Guy 1–2, 3–4
Burran, Mark 1
Byng, Admiral John 1
Byrhtnoth 1–2, 3, 4
Byron, Lord 1–2, 3
C
Čabrinović, Nedeljko 1, 2, 3, 4
Cairncross, John 1
Cairns, Hugh 1
Californian 1–2
Cambridge Apostles 1
Cambridge Spy Ring 1–2
Carlyle, Thomas 1–2
Carpathia 1
Cascelloid 1–2
Cavendish, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle 1–2
Cavendish, William 1–2
Chadwick, Elizabeth 1
Chain, Ernst 1
Chamberlain, Neville 1–2
Champion, Charles 1
Chapman, Sir Thomas 1
Charles II, King 1
Charman-Anderson, Suw 1
chicken tikka masala 1–2
Cholmondeley, Eliza 1
Christie, Agatha 1, 2, 3
City of Memphis 1
Clive, Rebecca and Richard 1–2
Clive, Robert 1–2
Cobb, Frank I. 1
computers 1–2, 3–4
Cook, Captain James 1, 2, 3
Cook, Robin 1
crash helmets 1, 2, 3
Čubrilović, Vaso 1, 2
Curčić, Fehim 1
curry 1–2
Cutlar, Lyman 1–2, 3
D
Dalrymple, William 1
Darwin, Charles 1–2, 3, 4
Dash, Mike 1
David, Elizabeth 1
Davidson, Jim 1
Davis, Rod 1
Davison, Emily Wilding 1–2
Defoe, Daniel 1
Depeche Mode 1
Descartes, René 1, 2
Dickens, Charles 1, 2
Dimitrijević, Dragutin (Apis) 1
Douglas, James 1–2
Douglas-Home, Sir 1
Draga, Queen 1
Du Cros, Harvey 1, 2
Dunlop, John 1–2
E
Earle, Colonel 1
East India Company 1, 2, 3, 4
Edward Hack Ltd 1
Elizabeth I, Queen 1
Enigma Code 1
European Economic Community (EEC) 1
Evans, Cyril 1
Ewart, William 1
F
Fandiño, Juan de León 1–2, 3
Faraday, Michael 1
Fedida, Sam 1
Ferdinand, Archduke Franz 1, 2–3
fire 1–2, 3–4
First World War (1914–18) 1–2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
FitzRoy, Captain Robert 1–2
Fleet, Frederick 1, 2
Fleming, Alexander 1–2
Florey, Howard 1, 2
Flür, Wolfgang 1
G
Gaitskell, Hugh 1
Gallico, Paul 1–2
Galton, Ray 1
Gandhi, Mahatma 1
Garry, Len 1, 2
Gates, Bill 1
general elections 1–2
Geoffrey of Anjou 1, 2
Gifford, John 1
Gildas 1
Goddard, William 1, 2
Gold, Steve 1–2
Goldschmidt, Hans 1
Goodyear, Charles 1
Gordon, Augusta Ada 1–2
Gore, Martin 1
Grabež, Trifko 1, 2
The Grecian 1–2
Greene, Sir Hugh 1, 2
Griffin, Charles 1–2
Griffith-Jones, Mervyn 1
Griffiths, Eric 1
Groves, Charles 1–2
Guillet, Leon 1
H
Halley, Edmond 1–2, 3–4
Hanton, Colin 1
Hardaker, William ‘Humbug Billy’ 1, 2
Hardrada, Harald 1
Hari, Mata 1
Harland and Wolff 1
Harney, Brigadier-General William S. 1
Harold II, King 1, 2
Harris, Kitty 1
Harrison, Andrew 1
Harrison, George 1
Hax 1
Heath, Edward 1–2
Heatley, Norman 1
Hellmann, Richard 1
Hemingway, Ernest 1–2
Henrietta Maria, Queen 1
Henry I, King 1–2
Henry II, King 1–2, 3
Henry IV, King 1
Henry VIII, King 1
Henry the Younger 1–2
Henslow, John Stevens 1
Henson, William 1
Herberte-Basing, Mr Sidney 1
Hitler, Adolf 1, 2–3, 4
Hobbes, Thomas 1
Hodgson, Charles 1, 2
Hogg, George 1–2
Hooke, Robert 1–2, 3, 4
Hooley, Terah 1
Housatonic 1
Htin Kyaw 1
Hudson’s Bay Company 1
Hume, Willie 1
Hunt, William 1
Hunter, John 1
Hütter, Ralf 1, 2
Huygens, Christiaan 1
I
Ilić, Danilo 1
Illinois 1
International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) 1–2
International Ice Patrol 1
International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 1
International Whaling Commission 1
Iraq War (2003) 1
Ismay, J. Bruce 1
J
Jafar, Mir 1
James II, King 1
Jenkins, Robert 1–2, 3
Jenner, Edward 1–2
Jenner Institute 1
Jif 1–2
Jobs, Steve 1
John, King 1
Johnson, David 1
Johnson, Dr Samuel 1
Jones, Herbert 1
Joseph, Emperor Franz 1
Junner, Sarah 1
Justinian I, Emperor 1–2
Juvenal 1
K
Keeler, Christine 1
Keiller, James 1–2
Keiller, Janet 1–2
Keiller Company 1
Keiller (James) and Son 1
Kepler, Johannes 1
Kettilby, Mary 1
Khin Kyi 1, 2, 3
King, Lady Augusta Ada (Ada Lovelace) 1–2
King, William 1
Kraftwerk 1–2
Krupp Iron Works 1
Krushchev, President 1
L
Lamb, Lady Caroline 1
lampreys 1–2
Lane, Allen 1–2
Lane, Dick 1
Lane, John 1, 2
Lavater, Johann 1
Lawrence, D. H. 1
Lawrence of Arabia (T. E. Lawrence) 1–2
Lee, Reginald 1
lemon juice container 1–2
Lennon, John 1–2
Leonardo da Vinci 1
Leyden, John 1
libraries 1
Lister, Joseph 1, 2
literature 1, 2, 3–4, 5–6
Livingstone, Dr 1
Lodge, Caroline 1
Lojka, Leopold 1, 2–3
Lord, Stanley 1
Lord, Walter 1, 2
Lorraine, Charles de 1–2
Louis XIV 1
Lownie, Andrew 1
Ludlow, Daniel 1
Luke, Sir Samuel 1
Lusitania, RMS 1, 2
Lyman M. Law 1–2
M
McCartney, Paul 1–2
McCormick, Neil 1
McGoohan, Patrick 1
Mackintosh, Lt Col 1
Maclean, Donald 1–2, 3–4
Macmillan, Harold 1
Magna Carta 1
Malcolm III, King of Scotland 1
Maly, Theodore 1
Mann, Wilfrid 1
Mao Tse Tung 1
Marling, Melinda 1, 2
marmalade 1–2
Marr, Johnny 1
Maskelyne, Margaret 1
Matania, Fortunino 1, 2
matches 1–2
Matilda, Queen 1
Matilda of Scotland 1–2
Maurois, André 1
mayonnaise 1, 2–3
Mehmedbašić, Muhamed 1, 2
Menabrea, Luigi 1
MI5 1–2
Micronet Mailbox 1
Middleton, Captain Frank A. 30
Milbanke, Anne Isabella (Annabella) 1–2, 3, 4
Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) 1–2
Missourian 1
Moivre, Abraham de 1
Monnartz 1–2
Montagu, John, 4th Earl of Sandwich 1–2
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley 1
Mosley, R. F. 1
Mouillot, Mr 1
Murray, Fanny 1
music 1, 2–3, 4–5
N
National Health Service 1
National League for Democracy (NLD) 1–2
Ne Win, General 1
Neal, Joseph 1, 2, 3
Nelmes, Sarah 1
Newcomen, Thomas 1
Newton, Isaac 1–2, 3
Northern Men’s Federation for Women’s Suffrage 1
O
O’Brien, John 1
Oliver, Lord of Aylmerton 1
Ono, Yoko 1
P
Pankhurst, Emmeline 1
Papin, Denis 1–2
Pasch, Gustav Erik 1
Pelican Books 1
Penguin Books 1–2
Penguin Classics 1
penicillin 1–2
Philby, Kim 1, 2–3
Philip, Prince 1, 2
Phillips, John 1
Phipps, Charles 1, 2, 3
Phipps, James 1
Pitt, William the Elder 1
Pitt, William the Younger 1
plague 1, 2–3
Pneumatic Tyre and Booth’s Cycle Agency 1
pneumatic tyres 1–2
poisoning 1–2
Popović, Cvjetko 1
Post Office 1–2
Potiorek, General Oskar 1, 2
Prescott, Clifford 1
Prestel 1–2
Princip, Gavrilo 1–2, 3, 4–5, 6–7
Principia 1–2
The Prisoner 1
Procopius 1
Profumo affair 1
Ptarmigan 1
Puffin Books 1
Pugh, William Alec Gibson 1–2, 3
Q
The Quarrymen 1–2
R
ReaLemon 1–2
Reckitt & Colman Ltd 1, 2–3
Red List of Threatened Species 1
road-safety legislation 1
Robert, 1st Earl of Gloucester 1, 2, 3
Rodger, N.A.M. 1
Roger de Pont l’Évêque 1
Roger of Wendover 1–2
Rolls, Charles 1
Rose, Leutnant Hans 1
Ross, John Hume 1
Rostron, Arthur 1
Rousseau, Margaret Hutchinson 1
Rowland, Kevin 1
Royce, Frederick 1
rubber 1
S
Sahib, Chanda 1
sandwiches 1–2
Savery, Thomas 1–2
Sayers, Dorothy L. 1
Scattergood, Francis 1
Schifreen, Robert 1–2
Schneider, Florian 1
Scott, Andy 1
Scott, Peter 1–2
Scott, Robert Falcon 1, 2
Scott, Walter 1
seat belts 1
Second World War (1939–45) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9–10
Sedgwick, Professor Adam 1
Seven Years’ War (1754) 1, 2
Severn Wildfowl Trust 1
Shakespeare, William 1
Shaw, T. E. 1
Shelley, Percy Bysshe 1–2
Shish Mahal 1, 2
Shotton, Pete 1, 2
Simpson, Alan 1
Sims, George R. 1
Siraj ud Daulah 1
smallpox 1–2
Smith, Captain Edward 1, 2
Smith, Ernie 1
Soares, Jô 1
Somerville, Mary 1
Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg 1, 2
Sorrell, Martin 1
Spahovic, Smail 1
Sportsnight 1, 2
stainless steel 1–2
Stalin, Joseph 1
Stanley, Henry Morton 1
Stanley, Lord 1, 2
Starr, Edwin 1
Starr, Ringo 1
Steinbeck, John 1
Stephen of Blois 1, 2
Steptoe and Son 1–2, 3
Stevenson, Margaret 1
Straight, Michael 1
Stringfellow, John 1
Stuart, Ernest 1
Suffragette movement 1–2
sugar 1, 2–3
Symons, George 1, 2
T
Tandey, Private Henry 1–2
Tankosić, Vojislav 1
Temperley, Harold 1
Thackerey, William Makepeace 1
Thatcher, Margaret 1
Theatre Royal, Exeter 1–2
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury 1
Theobald of Blois 1
Thompson, Robert 1, 2
Titanic 1–2
toasted sandwich maker 1–2
Tomorrow’s World 1–2
Tryggvason, Olaf 1–2, 3, 4
Turing, Alan 1, 2
tyres 1–2
V
vaccinations 1–2
Vaughan, Ivan 1, 2