Victoria Hall

The 16th June marks the anniversary of one of the North Easts most tragic events – the Victoria Hall disaster, which occurred in Sunderland in 1883. Some 2000 school children, mostly aged between 7 and 11, attended an afternoon variety show. With the promise of prizes for everyone there was a surge of children into an area of the hall without an adequate exit route and 183 were crushed to death. A marble statue of a grieving mother holding a dead child stands as a memorial in Sunderland’s Mowbrary Park. Many thanks to Steve Cogdon for commissioning the slow air, Victoria Hall, to mark the occasion. Another tune to come out of the project was Waltz for Lost Children. Audio and notation for both tunes are available free to download for the month of June 2021.