EXCITING STREET SCENE AT LUDGATE-HILL.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 30, 4 July 1874, Page 3

EXCITING STREET SCENE AT LUDGATE-HILL.

On Monday morning a scene of a very unusual and exciting nature, and which at one time threatened to inflict very serious injury to persons and property, took place opposite the Ludgate-hill railway station. It would appear that for some time past workmen have been engaged excavating beneath one of the main pipes in the busy thoroughfare of Bridge street, when suddenly, about halfpast eleven o'clock, from some unexplained cause, the main pipe burst, and with a roar like a cannon, a broad volume of water shot up into the air to an enormous height, and came pouring down with amazing force, deluging everything and everybody, from one side of the road to the other. The passengers on the top of the omnibuses fared the worst, and if it had not been for the injury they sustained before they could hide themselves under the tarpaulins, the scene would have been very ludicrous. All traffic was instantly stopped, but the waterspout was kept in action without cessation, giving rise to the utmost consternation, and evidently bewildering the workmen who ran hither and thither unable to stop its caTeer. In a very few minutes the crowd became so and pressed so eagerly round the scene of the occurrence, that a strong body of police had to be called to the sj>ot to prevent accidents. It was at least half an hour before a stop could be put to the flood.