Mowbray Park, Victoria Hall Disaster Memorial

White marble memorial to 183 children who died in the Victoria Hall, Toward Road, Sunderland on 16th June 1883. It was erected inside a glass and ironwork structure in Mowbray Park opposite the scene of the tragedy. In 1934 the memorial was removed to Bishopwearmouth Cemetery where it was listed in 1994. In 2000 the statue was restored and replaced in Mowbray Park (a Grade II-registered park and garden; National Heritage List for England 1001320) within a new protective canopy. After this disaster legislation was passed making the provision of adequate and outward-opening exits at all places of entertainment compulsory.
The National Heritage List was amended on 10/09/21 and reads:
Memorial to the Victoria Hall Disaster, 1884 by sculptor W G Brooker.
MATERIALS: a white marble statue on a grey stone pedestal.
DESCRIPTION: situated within the north-east part of Mowbray Park. A corniced pedestal has a stepped base with a wreath carved onto the front dado face. It bears an expressive, life-size figure of a robed and seated grieving mother holding a dead child across her left knee. The figure, with arm and head thrown back in despair is derived from the classical figure of Niobe mourning her dead children. The inscription on the front face of the pedestal, beneath the carved wreath reads: ERECTED/TO COMMEMORATE/ THE CALAMITY WHICH TOOK PLACE/IN THE VICTORIA HALL, SUNDERLAND/ON SATURDAY 16 JUNE 1883/BY WHICH 183 CHILDREN LOST THEIR LIVES.
LISTED GRADE 2