One week on...

… and I might have discovered something interesting about Benson's heroics in the Theatre Royal fire.  With true Bensonian serendipity, it concerns a place where I was taken by a very lovely friend two weeks ago - a bar in Market Street  I'd never been in before - and at the time I was totally unaware that it had played a part in the story I was trying to write!  Still not quite ready to share it all, but I've been writing like mad, grazing all the source materials again and trying to make sense of all the accounts of that night, placed together.  It is amazing what we know... and what we don't.  I've spent several hours this week on this and I'm delighted with the way it is knitting together.  Just need to return to that bar with a camera, knowing what I know... EXCITED!

These are internet sourced images.  Going to add my own once I've been back...

Stand Well Back...

I've been sidelining a little by returning to the Theatre Royal Newcastle fire of 1899 and attempting to 'write it up' in an accessible way.  I've been seduced by the creative non-fiction genre and I'm playing with words on the page at the moment.

Anyway, as part of the research I've spent this evening using the British Newspaper Archives to cross reference accounts of the fire with the books I've already used.  In the process of trying to ascertain exactly what happened, I've unearthed a cat story (we love a good cat story!) and some very graphic descriptions of what the Shields Daily Gazette called the 'Thrilling Spectacle' of the Theatre Royal in flames!  Much more of all this later (I promise) : the finest gem I unearthed was on the BFI website -

https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-turn-out-of-the-newcastle-fire-brigade-1901-1901-online

This is silent film footage of the Newcastle fire brigade in a publicity film from 1901 and it is two minutes of absolute joy.  Watch out for the policeman at the start, waving bystanders out of the way, the little dog (with a death wish?) running in front of the fire engines, the firemen running along with the fire escape ladder, the two naughty boys deliberately running back and forth across the road in front of the local dignitaries and the frequent re-appearance of one man with a flat cap who is much more interested in the camera than in the fire brigade!

And just when you think it's all over... the fire engines are suddenly there again, rushing around in the background!

It is rather reminiscent of a Buster Keaton film...

Enjoy!