London at the End of the Century:A Book of Gossip
a Beckett, Arthur William
1900
THE GREAT FIRE IN THE OLD BAILEY.
In the old days, when the headquarters of the London Fire Brigade used to be in Watling Street, I was a frequent visitor to the apartments of Sir Eyre Shaw. The late Chief Superintendent was in the habit of allowing some of his friends to act as volunteers, and on more than one occasion I was of the number. In those days every man in the force was a sailor, with the solitary exception of the driver of the captain's cart. All the men were teetotalers. Since Sir Eyre resigned my connection with fires has been extremely limited. The last I attended was two or three years ago. I had been dining in Bouverie Street at a famous literary dinner, when there was a cry that a fire had broken out in the neighbourhood. The sparks were floating over Bouverie Street and falling in the roadway. An artistic colleague of mine volunteered to come with me, and we started for the scene of conflagration. We found the block of buildings close to the Old Bailey and Ludgate Hill My ticket as a Member of the Institute of Journalists passed | |
161 | us through the cordon of police, and we might have gone anywhere and seen anything. The fire was got under after awhile, but not quickly enough to satisfy my artistic colleague. |
said he, | |
From which I took it that water-towers must be something particularly choice in the shape of fire extinguishers. | |
