Discussion Post: The Norwood Builder
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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Norwood Builder and the chosen topic is Fire Brigades.
A few facts:
🚒 The earliest municipal fire brigades that protected all properties were in Edinburgh (1824) and Manchester (1828). [FamilySearch]
🚒 The Great Fire of London [1666] was a severe blow to [London] and it cost millions of pounds to rebuild. As a result, fire insurance brigades were developed as a way to deal with future fires. People paid a fee to an insurance company to insure their property against damage... Firemarks were used to identify - and advertise - different insurance companies. They were placed on the outside of an insured building and brigades would use these firemarks to determine whether a building was insured by them. If a building was on fire, several brigades would attend; if they did not see their specific firemark attached to the building, they would leave the property to burn. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 In 1833, 10 independent fire insurance companies united to form the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE) to provide the public with a more resourceful and effective fire service. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 ...the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE)... started with only 19 fire stations and 80 men. [BBC]
🚒 James Braidwood became the first superintendent of the LFEE and remained as Chief Officer for 28 years. He was originally a surveyor and knew the structure of buildings before becoming a fireman. Braidwood also established the world's first municipal fire service in Edinburgh in 1824… [BBC]
🚒 The Tooley Street fire is often referred to as the greatest fire since the Great Fire of London. It began on the afternoon of Saturday, 22 June 1861 at Cotton's Wharf, where many warehouses were situated… The London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE) attended the fire and by 6pm, 14 fire engines, including a steam fire engine and a floating engine, were all at the scene of the fire… It took two weeks to extinguish the fire and cost an estimated £2 million due to the contents of the warehouses. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 While [Braidwood] was assisting one of his firefighters, the front section of a warehouse collapsed on top of him, killing him instantly… It was three days before firefighters were able to recover [his] body due to the intensity of the flames. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Eyre Massey Shaw, ex Irish army officer, was recruited from Belfast city police and fire fighting services to be the new Chief Officer. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 As a result of the Tooley Street fire, insurance companies raised their premiums and insisted on better storage of products in warehouses. However, in 1862, the insurance companies wrote to the then Home Secretary stating they could no longer be responsible for the fire safety of London as they had often put out fires without charge. They felt it was something that should become a public authority… [T]he Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed in 1865 that stated from 1 January 1866 the Metropolitan Fire Brigade would commence as a public service. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The birth of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) in 1866 signified a period of change for London's fire service because from 1 January 1866 the MFB began operating as a public service. Before 1866, [the] system of insurance company fire brigades and parish pumps worked to extinguish fires, with the Royal Society of the Protection of Life from Fire responsible for rescuing those trapped at an incident. With its formation, the MFB took over the responsibilities of these organisations. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire (RSPLF) was formed in 1828 to help people escape from burning buildings by providing escape ladders… Wheeled escape ladders could reach up to 60 feet high and conductors had to undergo training between two and six months to safely operate the ladders. Some models had a canvas chute… [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw became Chief Officer of the MFB and introduced significant changes. He established a rank system, introduced a new uniform, built new fire stations, and experimented with advanced technology to improve the service. Shaw also wrote extensively about fire protection and warned about the fire hazards of theatres, a high fire risk during the Victorian era.
...he decided to recruit exclusively from the navy. He felt that sailors were highly disciplined and were strong, hardy and could work both day and night - as firefighters were on call 24 hours a day… Recruits had to prove their strength by raising a fire escape ladder, single-handed with the tackle reversed - the equivalent of lifting a straight 244lb weight. Trainee firefighters would then spend three months at the training school, where they would learn drills and practise exercises, learn about engines, use knots and were taught how to hold the jumping sheet. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Shaw is of course immortalised in the song ‘Oh, foolish fay’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera Iolanthe (1882): Oh, Captain Shaw!/ Type of true love kept under!/ Could thy Brigade/ With cold cascade/ Quench my great love, I wonder!
🚒 Firefighters of the MFB wore a tunic, cloth trousers, leather boots, a belt with pouch and axe and a brass helmet. Their work wear consisted of a duck jacket, duck trousers and a round cap similar to a sailor's cap. The distinctive brass helmet worn by firefighters was inspired by the French 'Pompiers' [that is, French firemen]. They had a front peak and a back peak to protect the head and the ears were cut away in order to help hearing. The helmets were made in pieces so should one section break it could be unscrewed and replaced. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The insurance companies continued to contribute a small amount to the Brigade's maintenance, but the great majority of the organisation’s funding came from the halfpenny rate the MBW [Metropolitan Board of Works] was allowed to levy on the citizens of the Metropolis for their fire protection. [Daniel W. T. Hood]
🚒 The new [Metropolitan Fire] brigade assumed responsibility for a much larger area of London, and because it received public money alongside its insurance revenue, it also covered those who could not afford fire insurance. Perhaps the most important aspect of the new brigade was that the ladders of the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire were merged into the brigade. The emphasis of the brigade was therefore changed fundamentally from the preservation of the insured property to the preservation of life. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 In 1904 the [Metropolitan Fire] brigade was officially renamed to the London Fire Brigade. This year also saw the introduction of bells to fire appliances and the beginning of motorisation of the brigade. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 Since the beginnings of the [Metropolitan Fire] Brigade staff would work full time as firemen, both at the stations and in watch boxes at night with the wheeled escape ladders prior to the introduction of ladder vans. It would not be until 1920 that a shift system would begin to be phased in. Prior to this, firemen were unlikely to get more than a few days off per year at the station officer’s discretion. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 In the provinces [that is, all of Britain outside of London] the insurance companies' fire brigades continued to maintain their own individual fire brigades until well into the second half of the Victorian era, and some of them continued to operate until the early years of the twentieth century. These insurance companies' fire brigades were eventually either disbanded or taken over, one by one, by local city or town authorities when those bodies decided to form their own fire brigades. [Brian Wright]
🚒 Hand pumps were used until the 1850s when steam-driven engines replaced them, and motor engines took over from horses in the early 20th century. [Familysearch]
🚒 Usually the manual fire engine was operated by members of the public who volunteered their services in return for payment. They were generally referred to as ‘pumpers’ and were placed evenly on either side of the pump using long handles to move the water onto the fire. They were paid (not always that promptly) by the respective insurance companies of the properties involved the sum of one shilling… for the first hour and sixpence each hour thereafter. [Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society]
🚒 Steam-power was first applied to work a fire-engine in 1830… There is also on the Thames a steam floating-engine, the machinery of which either propels the vessel, or works the pumps, as required. Subsequently were introduced the land steam fire-engines… [John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1867, on The Dictionary of Victorian London]
🚒 Many of the most serious dangers attendant on a fire arise from the suffocating influence of the vast body of smoke which usually accompanies it… To rescue individuals enveloped in smoke is thus a matter of anxious solicitude, and, to facilitate the exertions of the firemen to this end, they are provided with a very ingeniously-constructed smoke-proof dress. It consists of a leathern jacket and head-covering, fastened at the waist and wrists, whereby the interior is made tolerably smokeproof. Two glass windows serve for the eyes to look through; and a pipe attached to the girdle allows fresh air to be pumped into the interior of the jacket, to support the respiration of the wearer. Thus equipped, the fireman may dare the densest smoke, although the dress is not so formed as to resist flame. [Charles Knight, Knight's London, 1842, on The Dictionary of Victorian London]
🚒 [Horses] had been used to pull fire engines since the formation of the London Fire Engine Establishment in 1833 and had continued in service long after the introduction of mechanised engines in 1907.
By the late 19th century, the majority of horses used by the Brigade were hired from Thomas Tilling Ltd, who owned many of the horse-drawn buses that operated throughout the capital at the time. Due to the demands of the work, the Brigade required specially bred horses… The 'Brigade Grey', as the breed became known, would stand at 15 hands high and usually entered the service around five-years-old. The nags would generally serve until the age of 12. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Working in pairs, the horses lived in stables at fire stations and had a designated officer called a 'coachman', whose role was to care for and harness the horses when a call came in… The coachman, who wore a firefighter's uniform and was subject to the same disciplines as other firefighters, would also be responsible for steering the fire engines to an incident and then leading the horses away to a safe distance. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Girton [College, Cambridge] was founded in 1869 as the first residential college for women and was at the forefront of improving women’s education. [A] fire brigade was established after the burning of a farmer’s haystacks near the college and was made up of rigorously trained students and junior lecturers. [Victorian Fan Guide] (*waves madly at Okapi*)
🚒 The fire station pole was introduced [in London, I assume is meant] after 1904 following an LCC [London County Council] 'fact finding' trip to the New York Fire Department. [BBC]
Some useful resources:
Historic Horse Drawn Fire Engine in London By hallshaw. On YouTube - 5 mins 29 secs. Re-enactment of a turn-out by a horse drawn fire engine from Victoria, London to Lambeth Fire Station.
Professions and Trades - Service Industry / General - Firemen On The Dictionary of Victorian London
The Birth of the Brigade The birth of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. On the London Fire Brigade website.
Victorian Firemen On the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society website.
London's historic fire stations rescued On the BBC website.
A brief history of Fire Insurance. Reproduced, with permission, from the book 'The British Fire Mark 1680-1879' by Brian Wright. On the Fire Mark Circle.
The fire brigade of Girton College Cambridge The fire brigade of Girton College Cambridge photographed in 1887. On Victorian Era Fan Guide on Tumblr.
LFB 150 - The history of horses in the Brigade On the London Fire Brigade website.
Fire Services On FamilySearch.
Early fire brigades On the London Fire Brigade website.
Eyre Massey Shaw On Wikipedia.
"Oh, foolish fay" Lyrics to "Oh, foolish fay" from Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan.
James Braidwood (firefighter) On Wikipedia.
Victorian London firefighting By Daniel W. T. Hood, on the City of London website.
The London Fire Brigade On RCS Motor Club.
The Tooley Street fire On the London Fire Brigade website.
Firefighters' uniforms through the ages On the Guardian website.
British Victorian Merryweather Fire helmet London Fire Brigade Photograph and description of the helmet. On Mullock’s Specialist Auctioneers & Valuers.
Firefighter's helmet On Wikipedia.
What did men during the Victorian times wear? On Primary Homework Help: The Victorians by Mandy Barrow. Modern photographs of cosplayers. Includes a photograph of two firemen - allows you to have a good look at what the uniform was like.
Victorian Firemen on Horse Drawn Fire Engine Antique Photograph c1890 On ebay.
Raggett’s Hotel - 1845 On May 27, 1845, fire swept Raggett's - a popular hotel in Piccadilly. By Vinny Del Giudice, on London Fire Journal.
Rotherhithe - 1871 Illustration of ``The Great Fire at Rotherhithe'' shows members of the London Fire Brigade conducting salvage and overhaul. The engraving - published in the Dec. 23, 1871 edition of the Illustrated London News - apparently depicts a fire that broke out on Oct. 24 of that year on Thames Street, destroying ``Nicholson's and other warehouses'' with ``great loss,'' according to Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. By Vinny Del Giudice, on London Fire Journal.
Bishopsgate Fire Station 1896-2012 Two photographs showing the Bishopsgate (part of the City of London) Fire Station in 1896 and again in 2012.
Fetch the Engines By Mike Paterson, on London Historians’ Blog. A look at the London Fire Brigade Museum in Southwark.
Victorian Hay - the Fire Brigade On Victorian Powys for schools. (‘Hay’ is Hay-On-Wye, in the county of Powys in Wales.)
City Fire Brigade A look at the history of the Aberdeen fire brigade. On the Doric Columns.
Victorian fire station had latest electric call bells and alarms Article about the Asfordby Street fire station, Leicester. On the Leicester Mercury website.
Days Gone By - How the fire brigade in Ipswich was born By David Kindred, on The East Anglian Daily Times.
Past and present, the Blenheim Palace Fire Brigade... On the Blenheim Palace website.
Blazing Saddles A brief look at the Victorian era Horsham fire brigade. On the Horsham Museum website.
Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
The History of Sheffield Fire Brigade
Reading the Riot Act By Freddie Feest, on Worthing History. A photograph and tiny bit about the Victorian era Worthing fire brigade.
The Problem of Fire in Nineteenth Century British Cities: the Case of Glasgow By Shane Ewen. An academic essay in PDF form.
Firemen at work (Victorian engraving) Victorian firemen fighting a large fire. From ‘The Boy’s Own Paper’ 1879-80… On gettyimages.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts:
🚒 The earliest municipal fire brigades that protected all properties were in Edinburgh (1824) and Manchester (1828). [FamilySearch]
🚒 The Great Fire of London [1666] was a severe blow to [London] and it cost millions of pounds to rebuild. As a result, fire insurance brigades were developed as a way to deal with future fires. People paid a fee to an insurance company to insure their property against damage... Firemarks were used to identify - and advertise - different insurance companies. They were placed on the outside of an insured building and brigades would use these firemarks to determine whether a building was insured by them. If a building was on fire, several brigades would attend; if they did not see their specific firemark attached to the building, they would leave the property to burn. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 In 1833, 10 independent fire insurance companies united to form the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE) to provide the public with a more resourceful and effective fire service. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 ...the London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE)... started with only 19 fire stations and 80 men. [BBC]
🚒 James Braidwood became the first superintendent of the LFEE and remained as Chief Officer for 28 years. He was originally a surveyor and knew the structure of buildings before becoming a fireman. Braidwood also established the world's first municipal fire service in Edinburgh in 1824… [BBC]
🚒 The Tooley Street fire is often referred to as the greatest fire since the Great Fire of London. It began on the afternoon of Saturday, 22 June 1861 at Cotton's Wharf, where many warehouses were situated… The London Fire Engine Establishment (LFEE) attended the fire and by 6pm, 14 fire engines, including a steam fire engine and a floating engine, were all at the scene of the fire… It took two weeks to extinguish the fire and cost an estimated £2 million due to the contents of the warehouses. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 While [Braidwood] was assisting one of his firefighters, the front section of a warehouse collapsed on top of him, killing him instantly… It was three days before firefighters were able to recover [his] body due to the intensity of the flames. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Eyre Massey Shaw, ex Irish army officer, was recruited from Belfast city police and fire fighting services to be the new Chief Officer. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 As a result of the Tooley Street fire, insurance companies raised their premiums and insisted on better storage of products in warehouses. However, in 1862, the insurance companies wrote to the then Home Secretary stating they could no longer be responsible for the fire safety of London as they had often put out fires without charge. They felt it was something that should become a public authority… [T]he Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act was passed in 1865 that stated from 1 January 1866 the Metropolitan Fire Brigade would commence as a public service. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The birth of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB) in 1866 signified a period of change for London's fire service because from 1 January 1866 the MFB began operating as a public service. Before 1866, [the] system of insurance company fire brigades and parish pumps worked to extinguish fires, with the Royal Society of the Protection of Life from Fire responsible for rescuing those trapped at an incident. With its formation, the MFB took over the responsibilities of these organisations. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The Royal Society for the Protection of Life from Fire (RSPLF) was formed in 1828 to help people escape from burning buildings by providing escape ladders… Wheeled escape ladders could reach up to 60 feet high and conductors had to undergo training between two and six months to safely operate the ladders. Some models had a canvas chute… [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Captain Sir Eyre Massey Shaw became Chief Officer of the MFB and introduced significant changes. He established a rank system, introduced a new uniform, built new fire stations, and experimented with advanced technology to improve the service. Shaw also wrote extensively about fire protection and warned about the fire hazards of theatres, a high fire risk during the Victorian era.
...he decided to recruit exclusively from the navy. He felt that sailors were highly disciplined and were strong, hardy and could work both day and night - as firefighters were on call 24 hours a day… Recruits had to prove their strength by raising a fire escape ladder, single-handed with the tackle reversed - the equivalent of lifting a straight 244lb weight. Trainee firefighters would then spend three months at the training school, where they would learn drills and practise exercises, learn about engines, use knots and were taught how to hold the jumping sheet. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Shaw is of course immortalised in the song ‘Oh, foolish fay’ from Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera Iolanthe (1882): Oh, Captain Shaw!/ Type of true love kept under!/ Could thy Brigade/ With cold cascade/ Quench my great love, I wonder!
🚒 Firefighters of the MFB wore a tunic, cloth trousers, leather boots, a belt with pouch and axe and a brass helmet. Their work wear consisted of a duck jacket, duck trousers and a round cap similar to a sailor's cap. The distinctive brass helmet worn by firefighters was inspired by the French 'Pompiers' [that is, French firemen]. They had a front peak and a back peak to protect the head and the ears were cut away in order to help hearing. The helmets were made in pieces so should one section break it could be unscrewed and replaced. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 The insurance companies continued to contribute a small amount to the Brigade's maintenance, but the great majority of the organisation’s funding came from the halfpenny rate the MBW [Metropolitan Board of Works] was allowed to levy on the citizens of the Metropolis for their fire protection. [Daniel W. T. Hood]
🚒 The new [Metropolitan Fire] brigade assumed responsibility for a much larger area of London, and because it received public money alongside its insurance revenue, it also covered those who could not afford fire insurance. Perhaps the most important aspect of the new brigade was that the ladders of the Society for the Protection of Life from Fire were merged into the brigade. The emphasis of the brigade was therefore changed fundamentally from the preservation of the insured property to the preservation of life. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 In 1904 the [Metropolitan Fire] brigade was officially renamed to the London Fire Brigade. This year also saw the introduction of bells to fire appliances and the beginning of motorisation of the brigade. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 Since the beginnings of the [Metropolitan Fire] Brigade staff would work full time as firemen, both at the stations and in watch boxes at night with the wheeled escape ladders prior to the introduction of ladder vans. It would not be until 1920 that a shift system would begin to be phased in. Prior to this, firemen were unlikely to get more than a few days off per year at the station officer’s discretion. [RCS Motor Club]
🚒 In the provinces [that is, all of Britain outside of London] the insurance companies' fire brigades continued to maintain their own individual fire brigades until well into the second half of the Victorian era, and some of them continued to operate until the early years of the twentieth century. These insurance companies' fire brigades were eventually either disbanded or taken over, one by one, by local city or town authorities when those bodies decided to form their own fire brigades. [Brian Wright]
🚒 Hand pumps were used until the 1850s when steam-driven engines replaced them, and motor engines took over from horses in the early 20th century. [Familysearch]
🚒 Usually the manual fire engine was operated by members of the public who volunteered their services in return for payment. They were generally referred to as ‘pumpers’ and were placed evenly on either side of the pump using long handles to move the water onto the fire. They were paid (not always that promptly) by the respective insurance companies of the properties involved the sum of one shilling… for the first hour and sixpence each hour thereafter. [Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society]
🚒 Steam-power was first applied to work a fire-engine in 1830… There is also on the Thames a steam floating-engine, the machinery of which either propels the vessel, or works the pumps, as required. Subsequently were introduced the land steam fire-engines… [John Timbs, Curiosities of London, 1867, on The Dictionary of Victorian London]
🚒 Many of the most serious dangers attendant on a fire arise from the suffocating influence of the vast body of smoke which usually accompanies it… To rescue individuals enveloped in smoke is thus a matter of anxious solicitude, and, to facilitate the exertions of the firemen to this end, they are provided with a very ingeniously-constructed smoke-proof dress. It consists of a leathern jacket and head-covering, fastened at the waist and wrists, whereby the interior is made tolerably smokeproof. Two glass windows serve for the eyes to look through; and a pipe attached to the girdle allows fresh air to be pumped into the interior of the jacket, to support the respiration of the wearer. Thus equipped, the fireman may dare the densest smoke, although the dress is not so formed as to resist flame. [Charles Knight, Knight's London, 1842, on The Dictionary of Victorian London]
🚒 [Horses] had been used to pull fire engines since the formation of the London Fire Engine Establishment in 1833 and had continued in service long after the introduction of mechanised engines in 1907.
By the late 19th century, the majority of horses used by the Brigade were hired from Thomas Tilling Ltd, who owned many of the horse-drawn buses that operated throughout the capital at the time. Due to the demands of the work, the Brigade required specially bred horses… The 'Brigade Grey', as the breed became known, would stand at 15 hands high and usually entered the service around five-years-old. The nags would generally serve until the age of 12. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Working in pairs, the horses lived in stables at fire stations and had a designated officer called a 'coachman', whose role was to care for and harness the horses when a call came in… The coachman, who wore a firefighter's uniform and was subject to the same disciplines as other firefighters, would also be responsible for steering the fire engines to an incident and then leading the horses away to a safe distance. [London Fire Brigade]
🚒 Girton [College, Cambridge] was founded in 1869 as the first residential college for women and was at the forefront of improving women’s education. [A] fire brigade was established after the burning of a farmer’s haystacks near the college and was made up of rigorously trained students and junior lecturers. [Victorian Fan Guide] (*waves madly at Okapi*)
🚒 The fire station pole was introduced [in London, I assume is meant] after 1904 following an LCC [London County Council] 'fact finding' trip to the New York Fire Department. [BBC]
Some useful resources:
Historic Horse Drawn Fire Engine in London By hallshaw. On YouTube - 5 mins 29 secs. Re-enactment of a turn-out by a horse drawn fire engine from Victoria, London to Lambeth Fire Station.
Professions and Trades - Service Industry / General - Firemen On The Dictionary of Victorian London
The Birth of the Brigade The birth of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. On the London Fire Brigade website.
Victorian Firemen On the Isle of Thanet Archaeological Society website.
London's historic fire stations rescued On the BBC website.
A brief history of Fire Insurance. Reproduced, with permission, from the book 'The British Fire Mark 1680-1879' by Brian Wright. On the Fire Mark Circle.
The fire brigade of Girton College Cambridge The fire brigade of Girton College Cambridge photographed in 1887. On Victorian Era Fan Guide on Tumblr.
LFB 150 - The history of horses in the Brigade On the London Fire Brigade website.
Fire Services On FamilySearch.
Early fire brigades On the London Fire Brigade website.
Eyre Massey Shaw On Wikipedia.
"Oh, foolish fay" Lyrics to "Oh, foolish fay" from Iolanthe by Gilbert and Sullivan.
James Braidwood (firefighter) On Wikipedia.
Victorian London firefighting By Daniel W. T. Hood, on the City of London website.
The London Fire Brigade On RCS Motor Club.
The Tooley Street fire On the London Fire Brigade website.
Firefighters' uniforms through the ages On the Guardian website.
British Victorian Merryweather Fire helmet London Fire Brigade Photograph and description of the helmet. On Mullock’s Specialist Auctioneers & Valuers.
Firefighter's helmet On Wikipedia.
What did men during the Victorian times wear? On Primary Homework Help: The Victorians by Mandy Barrow. Modern photographs of cosplayers. Includes a photograph of two firemen - allows you to have a good look at what the uniform was like.
Victorian Firemen on Horse Drawn Fire Engine Antique Photograph c1890 On ebay.
Raggett’s Hotel - 1845 On May 27, 1845, fire swept Raggett's - a popular hotel in Piccadilly. By Vinny Del Giudice, on London Fire Journal.
Rotherhithe - 1871 Illustration of ``The Great Fire at Rotherhithe'' shows members of the London Fire Brigade conducting salvage and overhaul. The engraving - published in the Dec. 23, 1871 edition of the Illustrated London News - apparently depicts a fire that broke out on Oct. 24 of that year on Thames Street, destroying ``Nicholson's and other warehouses'' with ``great loss,'' according to Haydn's Dictionary of Dates and Universal Information. By Vinny Del Giudice, on London Fire Journal.
Bishopsgate Fire Station 1896-2012 Two photographs showing the Bishopsgate (part of the City of London) Fire Station in 1896 and again in 2012.
Fetch the Engines By Mike Paterson, on London Historians’ Blog. A look at the London Fire Brigade Museum in Southwark.
Victorian Hay - the Fire Brigade On Victorian Powys for schools. (‘Hay’ is Hay-On-Wye, in the county of Powys in Wales.)
City Fire Brigade A look at the history of the Aberdeen fire brigade. On the Doric Columns.
Victorian fire station had latest electric call bells and alarms Article about the Asfordby Street fire station, Leicester. On the Leicester Mercury website.
Days Gone By - How the fire brigade in Ipswich was born By David Kindred, on The East Anglian Daily Times.
Past and present, the Blenheim Palace Fire Brigade... On the Blenheim Palace website.
Blazing Saddles A brief look at the Victorian era Horsham fire brigade. On the Horsham Museum website.
Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
The History of Sheffield Fire Brigade
Reading the Riot Act By Freddie Feest, on Worthing History. A photograph and tiny bit about the Victorian era Worthing fire brigade.
The Problem of Fire in Nineteenth Century British Cities: the Case of Glasgow By Shane Ewen. An academic essay in PDF form.
Firemen at work (Victorian engraving) Victorian firemen fighting a large fire. From ‘The Boy’s Own Paper’ 1879-80… On gettyimages.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 01:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 05:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 08:19 pm (UTC)I would like to recommend the Granada adaptation of this story to anyone who hasn't seen it. It's one of my two favorite episodes in the entire Granada series, with lovely performances from everyone and some judicious changes to the plot to fix the obvious rabbit problem :)
no subject
Date: 2017-01-08 10:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-13 05:27 pm (UTC)btw, I used to be the fire safety officer for my previous firm, and we always had two fire-safety inspections a year, one with the fire department, and one with the fire insurance company. The fire department wasn't that strict about fire safety: they mostly just wanted to be sure that 1) everyone would get out alive probably, and 2) that our facility catching on fire wouldn't raze/poison/explode the neighborhood. Whereas the fire insurance company were always super-hardcore about everything -- I learned tons about fire prevention from them.
no subject
Date: 2017-02-14 08:21 pm (UTC)And how interesting to see the differing approaches from your fire department and the insurance company. I suppose it's nice to see a situation where insurance companies being keen not to have to pay out money actually leads to positive assistance from them ^^
no subject
Date: 2017-02-14 08:34 pm (UTC)