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Exeter Theatre Royal fire

1887 disasters in the United Kingdom1887 fires19th-century fires in the United KingdomBuilding and structure fires in EnglandEngvarB from January 2023
Fires in EnglandTheatre fires
Exeter Theatre Royal Fire 1887
Exeter Theatre Royal Fire 1887

On 5 September 1887, a fire broke out in the backstage area of the Theatre Royal in Exeter, England, during the production of The Romany Rye. The fire caused panic throughout the theatre, with 186 people dying from a combination of the direct effects of smoke and flame, crushing and trampling, and trauma injuries from falling or jumping from the roof and balconies. The death toll makes it the worst theatre disaster, the worst single-building fire, and the third worst fire-related disaster in UK history. Most of the dead were in the gallery of the theatre, which had only a single exit with several design flaws, and quickly became clogged with people trying to escape.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Exeter Theatre Royal fire (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Exeter Theatre Royal fire
Longbrook Street, Exeter Newtown

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N 50.7264 ° E -3.5274 °
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Longbrook Street
EX4 6AB Exeter, Newtown
England, United Kingdom
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Exeter Theatre Royal Fire 1887
Exeter Theatre Royal Fire 1887
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Rougemont Castle
Rougemont Castle

Rougemont Castle, also known as Exeter Castle, is the historic castle of the city of Exeter, Devon, England. It was built into the northern corner of the Roman city walls starting in or shortly after the year 1068, following Exeter's rebellion against William the Conqueror. In 1136 it was besieged for three months by King Stephen. An outer bailey, of which little now remains, was added later in the 12th century. The castle is mentioned in Shakespeare's play Richard III in a reference to that king's visit to Exeter in 1483. Devon's county court was located here from at least 1607, and the three Devon Witches—the last people in England to be executed for witchcraft—were tried and convicted at the Exeter Assizes in 1682. All the buildings inside the walls were swept away in the 1770s to make way for a new courthouse, which was extended by the addition of wings in 1895 and 1905. Because of its function as a court, the interior of the castle was not open to the public until the court moved to a new site in 2004. The entire site was later sold to a developer whose stated aim was to transform it into "the Covent Garden of the South West".The castle is named after the red stone found in the hill, and used in the construction of the original buildings, of which the large early Norman gatehouse is the main remaining feature. It is surrounded on three sides by the Rougemont Gardens and Northernhay Gardens, public parks now maintained by Exeter City Council.