Calamity at 69 Moscow Road, Bayswater

The headlines in the newspapers said, “Calamity at Bayswater”. This blog is the story behind these headlines. The story is set in the Bayswater area of London and begins on 30 September 1869, a day which lead to tragedy for the Titheradge family.

In these days Bayswater was mainly an upper-class area full of splendid houses for the wealthy and prosperous. Set back from the main roads were other smaller roads that housed the less well-off and were slum areas. Quarter of a mile from Queen Victoria’s Kensington Palace was Moscow Road and this was one of these slum areas. It was a narrow, overcrowded thoroughfare that led onto Queens Road and consisted of small terraced houses squashed together. Towards the Queens Road end of Moscow Road was a row of little shops; a baker, a grocer, a confectioner, a butcher, then came Poplar Place and on the other corner was the Kings Head pub. In the confectioner’s shop (69 Moscow Road) lived Edward Titheradge. He rented the property from the Metropolitan Railway Company which had opened the nearby Bayswater Station in 1868. 69 Moscow Road consisted of four rooms plus an underground kitchen at the back of the house. The front room was the shop, with the parlour behind and on the first floor were two bedrooms. There was no bathroom and a water closet (toilet) was situated at the end of the garden. 37-year-old Edward lived there with his wife Eliza and their six children, Sarah 15, Henry 13, Anne 12, Elizabeth 7, Emma 5 and Edward 3. To make ends meet Edward rented out the front bedroom to Mrs Jack and her children, Agnes 17 and Henry 14. On this fateful day Mrs Jack’s 28-year-old son Stewart, a teacher, was also visiting for the school holidays. Twelve people were living in this small terraced house.

On this overcast day of Thursday 30 September everyone in the house began their daily routines, no one aware of the horrors that were to happen. The family arose and the younger children, Henry, Anne, Elizabeth and Emma, went off to school at nearby St Matthew’s School. With the children at school, Eliza began her daily chores, keeping an eye on Edward at the same time. Using her mangle, she did washing for the neighbourhood, an occupation that brought in extra money that the family needed for survival. 

Sarah went into the shop and opened up for the day. At 15 years old she had finished her education and she looked after the family shop. Edward had previously been a plumber but had to give this up as he was suffering severe rheumatism and was in constant pain, unable to move freely and some days he was bedridden. Edward lay on the settee in the parlour and from there he could see into the shop through the glass door. He would give instructions to Sarah as needed. The little confectionery shop sold sweets, tobacco, haberdashery, newspapers, stationery, toys, fireworks and “red and green fires” (these were used in theatres). The fireworks consisted of rockets, catherine wheels, squibs, roman candles and crackers, which were all safely stored in the glass cabinets on the walls between the shop and the parlour. Edward had previously held a licence to sell fireworks but his renewal application had been refused, so the fireworks were being sold illegally. Sarah passed the day serving the customers and tidying the stock. As evening approached the light faded and Sarah lit the two gas lamps in the shop and the gaslight in the parlour for her father.

At teatime Eliza fed the family and then the young children, Elizabeth, Emma and Edward said goodnight and went upstairs to the back bedroom and quickly fell asleep in the double bed. At seven o’clock Sarah closed the shop for the day and went off to stay with friends for the night. Henry had a friend called Charles Newton visiting and they went downstairs to the underground kitchen, they chatted and then fell asleep. Anne changed for bed then sat on the sofa with her father and rested her head on him and fell asleep. At 10.30 Eliza said it was time for bed. She went into the shop and put the gas lights out, leaving the gas light on in the parlour. Eliza went up the stairs leaving Edward on the settee, as he could no longer climb the stairs, with Anne sleeping beside him. Eliza settled down next to her three sleeping children and quickly fell asleep.

In the front bedroom, above the shop, Mrs Jack, Agnes and Henry had had an exciting day welcoming home Stewart for the school holidays. As evening arrived the family celebrated Stewart’s return with a meal cooked in their room and then sat round and chatted. The Jack family settled down for the night, put out their candles and went to sleep.

The only person left awake in the house was Edward. He tossed and turned unable to sleep because of the pain. Eventually, exhausted, he closed his eyes at 2.30 and dosed, blissfully unaware of the ensuing danger.

In the streets around Bayswater two policemen walked their lonely beats, it was a quiet night. As the policeman walked past 69 Moscow Road all was quiet. The clocks struck twelve and the first day of October arrived. One o’clock and all was well. Two o’clock and all well.

In the Queens Road fire station, the fireman on duty slept soundly, the rest of the crew slept in a nearby house in the neighbourhood.

All was quiet, time passed and fire smouldered. At five to three Edward awoke with a start – a hissing noise, a red glow through the door to the shop, the smell of smoke wafting through the door from the shop – a fire!! “Mother come down” he shouted in panic. Anne, woken by the shout, was terrified by the sight of the flames and the red glow coming through the glass door from the shop. She screamed “Mother” and then she ran out of the parlour into the passageway and out of the front door into bracing cold night air Moscow Road dressed only in her nightshirt. She ran to bakers, next door but one, and knocked furiously on the door looking for help, “Go away” the baker shouted. 

In the house Eliza came down into the parlour and saw the flames “My children” she screamed. She called for Henry in the basement and then turned and ran back towards the stairs. By this time the flames had spread from the shop into the passageway and onto the stairs. The acrid smoke hit her throat and she could not breathe, the heat was intense – she could not reach the upstairs bedroom where her children were. With the passageway ablaze, she could not reach the front door. She ran back into the parlour and to back door, the only means of escape.

Edward managed to move from the sofa to the floor despite the pain and dragged himself to the back door, then rolled down the steps into the garden. Henry and Charles rushed from the basement to see what all the commotion was about and helped Edward to the safety of the water closet at the end of the garden.

There was no sound heard from the Jack family in the front bedroom.

The policeman was in Bayswater Road when he saw smoke, then flames and sprung his rattle to raise the alarm and ran towards the source of the smoke. In Victorian London there were no phones, no source of quick assistance. When he arrived at 69 Moscow Road the flames licked the front of the property, rescue of the occupants was impossible. Aroused by the noise, a second policeman arrived and he ran to the fire station, just 400 yards away to raise the alarm. 

The flames danced and smoke billowed and suddenly, without warning, there was a mighty explosion that blew out the front of the shop and the shutters and the upstairs windows of the bedroom over the shop. Neighbours opened their windows to see what was happening. The cry of “fire” could be heard along the road. Many neighbours rushed to help, seeing entry to the front of the house was impossible they ran to the back of the house. They tried to find a ladder, but none could be found. Eliza screamed hysterically “My children, my children”. Someone said, “the children are safe”.

At the fire station the fireman on duty was woken by the policeman. The fireman ran to a neighbouring house to wake the other two sleeping fireman. He then ran back to the station and telegraphed other stations for additional engines and an escape ladder. He then prepared the fire engine and attached the horse to it. Finally, the horse powered engine and three firemen set off. At the inquest the fireman said they got to the fire in less than 8 minutes but the consensus of opinion of the witnesses in Moscow Road said it was 20 minutes before the firemen arrived. During this time all the horrified neighbours could do was stand and watch 69 Moscow Road burn. 

When the firemen arrived, they set to work. Other firemen arrived to assist including the fire escape ladder. The fire was put out relatively quickly, but it had already virtually destroyed the house. The firemen had been working for a while before anyone told them that there were people unaccounted for. As dawn broke the bodies of the Jack family could be seen in the first-floor bedroom on the upstairs rafters. When the firemen entered the building, they found 3 little bodies of the Titheradge children in the back bedroom. The cry that the children that were safe had referred to the children next door, not to Edward and Eliza’s children. 

The seven dead bodies, Elizabeth, Emma, Edward, Mrs Jack, Stewart, Henry and Agnes were taken to the Paddington dead house. 

69 Moscow Road after the fire. 

In daylight the extent of the damage could be seen, a shell of a house was all that remained, even the roof had gone. Luckily the fire had not spread to the adjoining properties which were only slightly damaged. Edward was taken to St Mary’s Hospital, the family were taken in by nearby family and distraught Eliza was comforted. A fund was started to support the family with £56 raised. The West of England Fire and Life Insurance paid out £200 compensation on the insurance policy. A week later the Jack family and Titheradge children were buried in Old Paddington Cemetery, which was situated in rural Willesden.

An inquest was held on the seven dead. It was set to be held at a public house but the crowds were so great it had to be moved to Vestry Hall. A doctor gave evidence that the cause of death of the seven victims was suffocation from the smoke. The Fire Service gave evidence that the fire had originated in the shop. The cause of the fire was debated. The fireworks or the “red and green fires” were cited as a possible cause, but spontaneous combustion was considered impossible by an expert. The gas meter was also considered as a possible cause, but it was concluded it exploded as a result of the heat and was not the cause of the fire. The jury concluded that the was no evidence to show how the fire originated, but it was agreed the fire was intensified by the presence of the fireworks. The inquest recommended that the fire service in Queens Road should be improved. The alarming fact to everyone was that a house a few minutes’ walk from a Metropolitan Fire Station could be destroyed and so many lives lost.

The Titheradge family moved to 75 Moscow Road and by the 1871 census 69 Moscow Road had been rebuilt. Edward died in 1874 and Eliza remarried in 1876. Sarah, Henry and Anne all married and had families, Henry being my husband’s great grandfather. The slum houses of Moscow Road were rebuilt in the late 19th century and then redeveloped again, probably around 1960s. All that remains as a landmark is the Kings Head pub and that too has been rebuilt. 

The tragedy was extreme even by Victorian times and the accident was reported far and wide in newspapers from Scotland to Cornwall. It is from these hundreds of accounts of the incident in the British Newspaper Archives that I have been able to put together this story. There are many conflicting facts in the newspaper reports and this account is the best guess of what happened based on the evidence. Sadly, the tragedy that happened at 69 Moscow road was a story that was forgotten in the family. By 1990 there was no knowledge of this dreadful event among any branch of the family.