Victoria Hall Disaster Memorial in Mowbray Park

Summary

Memorial to the Victoria Hall Disaster, 1884 by sculptor W G Brooker.

Reasons for Designation

The Victoria Hall Disaster Memorial of 1884, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a poignant memorial in the form of a grieving mother with a dead child across her lap, inspired by a classical statue of Niobe;
* designed and sculpted by W G Brooker of London, it is an accomplished and moving memorial in white marble.

Historic interest:

* commemorating the death of 191 children in one of the worst disasters of its kind in England, that prompted national outrage and grief;
* the enquiry established the safety standard that public venues should be fitted with a minimum number of outward opening emergency exits, which was enshrined in legislation by the end of the year.

Group value:

* situated within Mowbray Park, a registered park and garden, it benefits from a spatial group value with several listed buildings including the museum and library, a war memorial and various pieces of street furniture.

History

Victoria Hall was an imposing, brick-built Gothic entertainment complex constructed in 1872, opposite Mowbray Park, in Sunderland. It could seat 3,000 people, and is said to have rivalled the Crystal Palace and Albert Hall in size and architectural style. On the afternoon of the 16 June 1883, the building was the venue of a children's variety show by travelling entertainers the Fays of Tynemouth Aquarium. Jokes, tricks and songs were promised, along with the chance to win prizes. School teachers were given free tickets and encouraged to bring their children. Two thousand children, mostly those of mine and shipyard workers, were seated in the ground floor and the gallery of the hall (100 more than the +capacity) with the dress circle closed. At the end of the show an announcement was made that those children who held tickets with certain numbers would receive prizes of books and toys. Consequently, the vast numbers of children who had occupied the gallery excitedly made for the door at the foot of the stairs. This had been wedged partially open inwards and bolted, thereby allowing only one child to pass through at a time. The boisterous children quickly became trapped and 191 between the ages of three and 12 died. The disaster made national news headlines, leading to a mood of national outrage that also reached Queen Victoria who sent a wreath.

Inquests into the children's deaths were opened in the wards of Bishopwearmouth and Monkwearmouth. The former returned a verdict of death without blame attached to a specific person, though the hall's manager was criticised, and the latter called for 'sufficient means of exit, all doors both internal and external, to open outwards' at places of entertainment. As a result of this requirement, outward-opening emergency exits became law not long afterward. Despite the horror and shock of the event, the Hall stood for another 58 years, and was finally destroyed by a German bomb, during an air raid in 1941.

On the 18 June, a large gathering started a subscription fund for the relief of the affected families and for a memorial to those lost. By 14 August, £5,769 had been raised including £50 from Queen Victoria. A white marble memorial in the form of a grieving mother, inspired by the classical figure of Niobe, by sculptor William Gorton Brooker, was erected inside a glass and ironwork structure in Mowbray Park opposite the scene of the tragedy. Although 191 children had lost their lives, the memorial records 183 deaths, as it is understood that the deaths of eight traveller children had not been properly registered at the time.

W G Brooker of London is a known sculptor who exhibited once at The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1878.

In 1934 the memorial was removed (without its protective canopy) to Bishopwearmouth Cemetery where it was listed in 1994. In 2000 the statue was restored at a cost of £63,000 and replaced in Mowbray Park (a Grade II-registered park and garden; National Heritage List for England 1001320) within a new protective canopy.

Details

Memorial to the Victoria Hall Disaster, 1884 by sculptor W G Brooker.

MATERIALS: a white marble statue on a grey stone pedestal.

DESCRIPTION: situated within the north-east part of Mowbray Park. A corniced pedestal has a stepped base with a wreath carved onto the front dado face. It bears an expressive, life-size figure of a robed and seated grieving mother holding a dead child across her left knee. The figure, with arm and head thrown back in despair is derived from the classical figure of Niobe mourning her dead children. The inscription on the front face of the pedestal, beneath the carved wreath reads: ERECTED/TO COMMEMORATE/ THE CALAMITY WHICH TOOK PLACE/IN THE VICTORIA HALL, SUNDERLAND/ON SATURDAY 16 JUNE 1883/BY WHICH 183 CHILDREN LOST THEIR LIVES.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

391411

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Usherwood, P, Beach, J, Morris, C, Public Sculpture of North-East England, (2000), 183-185
Roberts, M, Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: County Durham, (2021), 712

Websites
Sunderland Council: local studies fact sheet number 5, accessed 20-07-2021 from https://www.sunderland.gov.uk/media/6964/5-Victoria-Hall-Disaster/pdf/5_Victoria_Hall_disaster.pdf?ccp=true#cookie-consent-prompt
Entry for W G Brooker in Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain & Ireland, 1851-1951, accessed 23-07-2021 from https://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/person.php?id=msib7_1254051229

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