Excerpt from The 1883 Annual Register [1884]
At the Victoria Hall, Sunderland, an accident occurred involving the death of 183 children. A conjuror named Fay had been giving a performance for the children, and at its close began to scatter prizes over the hall. The children in the gallery, fearful of losing their share, rose from their seats and hurried down the stairs leading to the body of the hall. There were three flights of steps and the landing. About the middle of the lower landing was a strongly constructed swinging-door, about five feet wide, with a bolt which can be let down into a hole in the floor, so as to keep it ajar to the extent of twenty-two inches. The object of this arrangement is, of course, to prevent more than one person from passing the ticket-taker at once. Whether any of the children, when they reached this door, got through it, is not known. It is probable that two attempted to go through the outlet at once, that they stuck in the narrow way, and others pressed upon them from behind, and that perhaps a third was blocked in the opening. The place was then impassable, and while it was so the children, eight or nine hundred strong, came bearing down from the gallery behind them. There was no panic, no alarm, no shout of "Fire!" or "Thieves!" it was simply a rush down to gain the desired presents. The door prevented the egress of any of the children from below, and the hundreds coming fast from the corridors above set up a block on the small landing between the door and the upper flight of steps. Within four yards of this spot there was absolute safety, and hundreds of children stood there in comfort; but the small, open space intervening between the stairs and the walls and door was a veritable shambles. Children were tumbled head over heels, one on the top of the other.
