Imagine spending a winter afternoon skating in one of London’s most fashionable parks. Hundreds of people are gliding across the frozen lake while thousands more watch from the banks. Then, without warning, the ice beneath you begins to crack. Within moments, huge sections give way and men, women and children disappear into freezing water.
Today I want to discover more about the Regent’s Park skating disaster of the 15th of January 1867, one of Victorian London’s most terrible winter tragedies. What makes the story even more disturbing is that there had already been a warning the previous day.
January 1867 had brought exceptionally cold weather to Britain. The lake in Regent’s Park froze and, as happened whenever London experienced a prolonged frost, people flocked there to skate. Outdoor skating was enormously popular, and the frozen lakes of the capital’s parks could attract large crowds. Regent’s Park had been used by skaters for decades, and to many Londoners a frozen lake meant entertainment rather than danger.
But on the 14th of January, the ice had already broken. Twenty-one people fell into the water, although remarkably they were all rescued. Overnight the surface froze again and snowfall helped disguise cracks and weaker areas. There was another complication too. Evidence later heard at the inquest revealed that ice had been deliberately broken in places around the lake, including around islands so that water remained available for birds.
Despite what had happened only a day earlier, crowds returned.
By the afternoon of the 15th of January, several hundred people were on the frozen lake and many more had gathered around it. Estimates vary, but contemporary accounts described an enormous crowd, with thousands watching the skaters. Then, at around half past three, the ice began to fail. Large areas suddenly broke apart and roughly 200 people were plunged into the freezing water, which in some places was around 12 feet deep.
Panic followed almost immediately. People desperately tried to climb onto pieces of broken ice, but those fragments could overturn or break beneath them. Victorian winter clothing became dangerously heavy once soaked, and many people could not swim. Those standing safely on the bank suddenly found themselves watching dozens of people fighting for their lives only a short distance away.
But the disaster also produced extraordinary acts of courage. Spectators and park workers rushed to help. Boats were launched, ropes were thrown and branches were torn from trees so that people trapped in the water had something to grasp. Many of those who had fallen through were eventually pulled out alive.
One survivor, Mr Dunton of Frederick Street, had been skating with his two children. When the ice disappeared beneath them, he found himself standing in deep water while trying to keep both children above the surface. He remained there for a frighteningly long time as the cold began to cramp his legs and the water rose around him. His account described people struggling among broken pieces of ice and a small boy drowning only yards away. Somehow, Dunton and his children survived.
Others were not so fortunate.
Bodies were taken to the nearby Marylebone workhouse, while rescuers continued searching the lake. The bitter weather made recovery even more difficult because the water repeatedly began freezing again. Divers eventually had to search the bottom, and it took several days to recover everyone who had died. Forty deaths are generally recorded today, although some contemporary reports gave the total as 41. Thirty-nine of the officially recorded victims drowned, while one died from the effects of the cold.
An inquest followed. Questions were inevitably asked about the condition of the ice and about the areas that had deliberately been broken before the accident. Ultimately, however, the jury returned verdicts of accidental death. They also recommended something that would permanently change Regent’s Park lake: it should be made much shallower.
That recommendation was acted upon. The lake was later drained, its bottom was levelled and its maximum depth was greatly reduced, to roughly four feet. The intention was simple. If the ice ever failed again, someone falling through should have a much better chance of surviving. Remarkably, the ice did break beneath skaters again in 1886, sending around 100 people into the water -but this time nobody died.
I think what makes the Regent’s Park disaster so haunting is how ordinary the afternoon had begun. These people had not gone somewhere they expected to be dangerous. They had simply wrapped themselves against the cold and gone skating in a London park. Within minutes, families were searching for loved ones and strangers on the banks were risking themselves to pull people from the freezing water.
Today Regent’s Park looks peaceful, but beneath that familiar landscape lies the memory of a disaster that actually changed the lake itself. Had you ever heard of the Regent’s Park skating disaster before?
For an image, there is also an excellent 1867 Illustrated London News engraving on Wikimedia Commons showing the rescue scenes, which would suit this post very well.
A contemporary illustration of the Regent’s Park skating disaster of 1867, showing rescuers attempting to save skaters after the ice on the lake broke.
Credit: Wikipedia Public Domain
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