Destructive Explosion (original) (raw)

This article has been introduced and transcribed for our website by Jacqueline Banerjee, at the suggestion of Shirley Nicholson.

Introduction

The following account is of special interest for several reasons. First, perhaps, is its revelation of an older way of life still lingering on in the heart of London: canal transport. By 1874, the railway network was well developed, yet goods were still being moved around the country by barges, which, according to the following section in this supplement, entitled "Canal Life," were "not likely to be altogether superseded by railways, as they afford an economical means of carriage for heavy goods, at the uniform speed, continued day and night, of two miles and a half per hour" (350). The removal firm of Pickford's, still in operation today, is mentioned as one of the "great carriers" using this form of conveyance (350). Also of interest is the substance that caused the explosion. The famous Waltham Abbey Royal Gunpowder Mills had started production only in 1872, but the area had been famous for its gunpowder mills ever since the sixteenth century, and, despite a series of acts aimed at regulating its storage and transportation, accidents did happen. In this one at the old Macclesfield Bridge over Regent's Canal, five tons of gunpowder from Waltham Abbey were on board, along with a few barrels of petroleum — a fatal combination. This would help to bring in the next Explosives Act of 1875, with its bylaws on the conveyance of gunpowder. Finally, the article is of interest for its record of the damage to artists' houses. This was a part of London said to be good for its light, and, like the other artists mentioned in the article, Lawrence Alma-Tadema had moved into a house there, which he then decorated richly and whimsically: "For every decorative trick drawn from his sketchbooks ..., he invented another of his own until few surfaces remained unrelieved by some unusual combination of exotic materials" (Walkley 129). It was most fortunate that he and his wife were away at the time of the explosion, and that their two daughters in a bedroom at the back escaped unscathed. But the damage to the house was considerable. Rebuilding and redecoration ensued, before a move to St John's Wood, where Alma-Tadema turned the house of the previous occupier, James Tissot, into another artistic dreamworld. Legislation notwithstanding, there would be further explosive incidents, but perhaps none that caught the public's attention more than this one.

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Scene of the explosion on the Regent's Canal on Friday morning, Oct. 2 (front page of the periodical).

An extraordinary accident, which happened yesterday week at five o'clock in the morning, cost the loss of several lives, much damage to houses and furniture, and a vast alarm to the north-western suburbs of London. This was the blowing up of a barge laden partly with petroleum and gunpowder for blasting, which was one of a train drawn by a steam-tug along the Regent's Canal, from Camden Town to St. John's-wood, on the north side of Regent's Park. The Regent's Canal, which is seven miles long, has its chief City dépot at the Eagle Wharf, City-road, in Finsbury, and is thence continued through Pentonville and St. Pancras to Kentish Town, from which it proceeds by Regent's Park and St. John's-wood to join the Paddington Canal. This passes away from town by Kensal-green, and traverses West Middlesex, but with a circuitous course, to the Grand Junction Canal near Southall. The Grand Junction, opening into the Thames at Brentford, extends to Braunston near Rugby, with a length of a hundred miles. It there joins other canals, affording communication with Birmingham and the midland and north-western counties of England. That part of the Regent's Canal which lies between the City and Camden Town is to a great extent concealed from view, as much of it passes underground through a tunnel, and other portions are screened by factories or warehouses. But it becomes more open in its westward course; and the section that passes along the northern border of Regent's Park, by the Zoological Society's Gardens, and between the gardens of North and South Bank at St. John's-wood, is a pretty piece of waterside scenery, adorned with trees and grassy banks. It is crossed by several bridges of an ornamental character, belonging to the Park and the gardens, and used by foot passengers. One such bridge, called Macclesfield Bridge, was situated at the North Gate of the Park, near the mansion of the late Mr. Holford, now the Baptist Ministers' College. It stood close to Albert-road, opposite the opening of Avenue-road, which leads on the west side of [349/350] Primrose-hill to the Finchley-road. There are no houses on the Park side of Albert-road; but several terraces and detached villas are on the north side. It was precisely here, under this bridge, that the explosion took place.

Bridge over the Regent's Canal, destroyed by the explosion (Macclesfield Bridge).

The train of six light barges, of which the first was a steamer, left the wharf in the City-road about three o'clock that morning. Next after the steamer, the Ready, was the fly-boat Jane, whose steerer or captain was named Boswell. Next to her was the Dee, the steerer Edwards; and next came the unfortunate Tilbury, whose steerer was Charles Baxton, of Loughborough, in Leicestershire. The Tilbury was followed by the Limehouse, steerer Edward Hall, and by the Hawksbury, steerer Blewer. The Jane "had a little gunpowder on board." The Tilbury's lading is thus described by the official report:— "The cargo consisted chiefly of sugar and other miscellaneous articles, such as nuts, straw-boards, coffee, and some two or three barrels of petroleum, and about five tons of gunpowder." It is stated to be a common practice to send gunpowder and petroleum in the same barge. Most of the gunpowder was in barrels, but there was one box which was probably filled either with powder in canister or in flasks. The powder was consigned by Messrs. Pigou and Wilkes to Chesterfield for Codnor Park, near Nottingham, and was sent for blasting purposes. It had been manufactured at the Waltham Abbey Mills, Essex. The barges were those of the Grand Junction Canal Company, which works the suburban lines by a lease or traffic arrangement.

Three or four minutes before five o'clock, this train of henge was passing under the bridge at North Gate, Regent's Park. They were connected in pairs; the steamer and the Jane were the first pair; the Dee and the Tilbury were the second ; the Limehouse and the Hawksbury were the last pair. On board the ill-fated Tilbury were the steersman, Charles Baxton, who was about thirty-five years of age; William Taylor, a labourer, of twenty-five; another man and a boy. The Tilbury was directly under the bridge when, by some means yet unexplained, the powder caught fire and the whole was blown up. The men on board this barge were killed, and the barge was shattered to pieces, while one of the other barges was sunk. A column of thick smoke and a great blaze of fire followed the explosion. The bridge was entirely destroyed; several of the neighbouring houses were half-ruined, their roofs and walls being greatly injured; and in hundreds of other houses, a mile east or west of the place, the windows were broken, and many fragile articles of furniture. St. John's-wood and Camden Town were thrown into great consternation. It must, however, be confessed that the effects of such an ex- plosion might have been much worse, if it had taken place in a tunnel amidst the crowded buildings of Finsbury or Pentonville; or at any part where, as in Kentish Town, the surface of the water is near the level of the adjoining streets. The fragments of the barge and cargo would, in the latter case, have been hurled right and left, a hundred yards or more, with terrible force and effect; instead of which they were mostly confined to the deep cutting of the canal. This served, indeed, as a conduit for the explosive gases of the gunpowder and pe- troleum, and for the violent currents of air, which took their direction due east and west. The consequence was that, in houses situated a little to the north or to the south of the line, very little damage was done, while those at a far greater distance east and west felt the blow more severely. The noise and shock were perceivedin every quarter of London, and in many instances ten or twelve miles away, both on the north and the south side of the Thames; just as, nine years ago, when the powder-magazine of Messrs. Hall's factory at Erith blew up, on Oct. 1, 1864, it was mistaken for an earthquake by people in London. The sensation was that of a sudden shock and lift, and then a perpendicular fall, quite unlike the vibration caused by a passing railway-train in a cutting near one's house. The sound, which followed one or two seconds later, was a single sharp bang, like that of a huge bombshell, with a rolling clatter of echoes. Many persons dwelling close to the London and North-Western Railway, from Euston-square to Chalk Farm and Kilburn, imagined for a moment either that a locomotive engine had blown up, or that two engines had run headlong against each other, as in the Thorpe collision. But this sort of disturbance was nothing to the experiences of some families inhabiting the houses in or near Albert-road, about the corner of Avenue-road, and the streets behind, in Portland Town, St. John's-wood. Not a few were fairly tossed out of their beds by the force of the shock, which really amounted to an earthquake in that part. Women and children rushed out of the houses, screaming for help, some in their night-dresses, others wrapped in blankets, and were not easily pacified by those of cooler mind whom they met. People soon hastened up from every quarter of town. The police, the Fire Brigade, and a detachment of Horse Guards (Blue) from Albany Barracks, presently arrived and kept order, while the task of saving what remained and searching for the lost was actively begun.

Left: The North Gate Park Lodge after the explosion. Right: A Bedroom in a house opposite.

The bridge was a substantially-built composite structure, supported upon two strong Ionic pillars of iron. It had a roadway about 25ft.in width, and pathways for pedestrians. The Rev. C. Kett, of King's College, has furnished us with a sketch of the bridge. A watchman who had been upon the bridge all night had fortunately left it to call a person with whom he had made that arrangement. Close by stood a cottage, the new North Lodge of the Park, in which the aged gate-keeper, Mr. Edwards, a man aged seventy-five, lived with his family. This house was completely ruined. One son jumped out of window; another heard nothing of the concussion, but awoke to find one wall of his room entirely gone. The six people in the house were little hurt; but the ruins, as shown in our illustration, are an ugly sight. The chimneys and part of the walls threatened to fall immediately, till the firemen pulled them down. Traces of damage were visible from the Swiss Cottage, St. John's-wood, to the Edgware-road. Scarcely a house in Sussex-place, Portland-terrace, Titchfield-terrace, Bentinck-terrace, Oakfield-terrace, Avenue-road, Lancaster-terrace, St. James's-terrace, John-street, and Townsend-road seemed to have escaped without injury. In the streets behind Park-road, inhabited by small tradesmen, the contents of shops were lying on the pavement, the insides being perfectly gutted. In Henry-street, Charles-street, Frederick-street, Acacia-road, and about the end of Avenue-road, the houses had scarcely a pane of glass complete in any window. A portion of stone was hurled from the canal into a garden in Acacia-road, a distance of five hundred yards, where it imbedded itself in the ground. Lower down, towards the park, the destruction was still greater. The canal was obstructed by a heap of rubbish 20 ft. high, amidst which were to be seen the columns which supported the arches of the bridge, and other pieces of ironwork. The bricks appear to have been separated one from the other in most cases, so that the brickwork did not lie in compact masses. The arch over the towing-path had fallen in. The girders supporting the midway were torn away and hurled high up on the slopes at the sides. The fluted pillars — shells of iron filled in with brick — which had supported the structure on each side, were cast down, and lay in the midst of heaps of earth, with a mass of puddle, broken stones, pieces of planking, and metal pipes formed a passage to the other side. A main of gas and one of water here crossing the canal were broken. The gas was on fire, and the water ran to waste; a drain or sewer was also burst open. The bed of the canal was completely choked up with rubbish. A barge lay at the side nearest town; a couple of barges and the wreck of a fourth were visible at the other side. The trees on the canal banks were torn and scorched by the fire. Such was the scene of havoc during several hours of the forenoon. Our illustrations, from sketches taken as early as possible, will give some notion of it.

A canal barge carrying powder and petroleum.

The sad work of dragging the bottom of the canal to find the dead bodies was watched by a multitude of spectators. The first two, those of William Taylor and the boy, were found at an early hour, beside the the barge Limehouse; that of the boy was lying on the canal bank. The body of Charles Baxton, steerer of the Tilbury, was found, near four o'clock in the afternoon, under one of the other barges. These dead were removed to Marylebone Workhouse.

The animals in that part of the Zoological Gardens which is nearest the canal, and in which is also the house of Mr. Bartlett, the superintendent, were very much terrified. The elands and antelopes, the giraffes, the elephants, and a rhinoceros, showed great excitement. Some glass was broken, and the frames of the wirework in one of the aviaries, so that a dozen of the little birds escaped.

An inquest on the bodies of the dead was opened by Dr. Hardwicke, the Coroner, at noon on Saturday, but was adjourned to Wednesday. It was attended by barristers and solicitors for the parties concerned. Major Majendie, of the War Office, inspector of gunpowder works, was present.

A meeting was held on Monday evening at the Eyre Arms, St. John's-wood, and a committee was formed to collect subscriptions for the relief of the poorer class of householders who suffer by this disaster. Mr. Forsyth, M.P. for Marylebone, was in the chair. The City Commissioners of Sewers, on Tuesday, appointed a committee to inquire what alterations of the law could be made for greater safety in the carriage of explosives. The Paddington vestry has also taken up this question, as the canal partly lies in that parish.

One of the houses where the greatest age has been done is that of Mr. Alma Tadema, the Belgian artist, whose picture of "Joseph" was engraved for our last week's extra supplement. An account of his studio and its contents is given among our "Fine Arts" notices of this week [see below]. Several other well-known artists and literary men, residing in the neighbourhood, have been put to more or less inconvenience or loss. Mr. J. Barrett and Mr. J. Edgar Williams, portrait-painters; Mr. M'Whirter, landscape-painter; Mr. Hepworth Dixon, Mrs. Howard Paul, Mr. Joseph Hatton, and Mr. John Leighton were among those who each had a special experience of this accident.

Fine Arts

Our readers will hear with regret that Mr. Alma Tadema, the learned and admirable painter of subjects from ancient Roman and Egyptian life, and whose picture from the last Academy exhibition, "Joseph, Overseer of Pharaoh’s Granaries,” we engraved last week, has been one of the greatest sufferers by the frightful explosion on the Regent's Canal. A few years back Mr. Alma Tadema became a permanent dweller among us, and it is not long since he received letters of denization trom the Queen. He took up his residence in Townsend House, North Gate, Regent’s Park, which is situated in the terrace immediately facing the site of the explosion. This house he had fitted up, decorated, and furnished throughout, at considerable expense, with reference to his special aims in art, different rooms being arranged and decorated in styles accordant with the styles of architecture and decoration introduced in his pictures. The house is distinguished from outside by its colouration and the "salve" over the lintel, which now reads like a cruel mockery, for the whole building is a mere wreck. Only one room has partially escaped. The doors and windows are blown in, the plaster broken from ceilings and walls; the glass, including some curious stained glass, is shivered and scattered in every direction; the roof is almost destroyed, and the sky visible through it. The artist’s handsome studio, decorated in the Pompeian style, is so shaken that light is visible through the cracks. Pompeii in its destruction may here be realised almost as vividly as its life and luxury are recalled in the artist’s works. Mr. Tadema was in the Highlands when the accident occurred.

Bibliography

Chronology of Gunpowder. Royal Gunpowder Mills. Web. 8 November 2025.

"Destructive Exlposion." Illustrated London News Vol.65 (10 October 1874): 349-250. Internet Archive. Web. 7 November 2025.

Explosives Act, 1875. UK Public general Acts. Web. 8 November 2025.

Walkley, Giles. Artists' Houses in London, 1764-1914. Aldershot, Hants. :Scolar Press, 1994.

Created 8 November 2025