1867 Gallery

Captain Collins of Brighton, with his family

Captain Fred Collins of Brighton, who ran three pleasure boats called the Skylark and was a familiar figure on Brighton Beach for sixty years. His cry of Any More for the Skylark became so famous that it became a national saying for pleasure boats. It is believed that the novelist Charles Dickens knew Collins, and went for a trip on the Skylark in 1867, commenting later on the captain's witty chatter to the trippers. Collins is seen here on the right, with his son, grandson and great grandson. The fleet continued to sail until just after the Second World War under his son, also named Fred Collins, although two of the three boats were lost at Dunkirk in 1940

© Mary Evans Picture Library

Union Workhouse, Brighton, Sussex

Brighton Union workhouse on Race Hill, at Elm Grove in Brighton, Sussex, which opened in 1867. From 1915 to 1920 it was the Kitchener Indian Hospital and later became Brighton General Hospital. The single-storey blocks in the foreground are the workhouse casual wards. Tramlines run along the roadway

© Mary Evans / Peter Higginbotham Collection

Clerkenwell Prison explosion

Effects of the explosion at the house of detention, Clerkenwell, seen from within the prison yard: police officers and firemen searching the ruins. The gunpowder explosion on the outer wall of Clerkenwell Prison was an attempt to free two Fenian prisoners, Richard Burke and Joseph Theobald Casey, who were imprisoned there. The explosion destroyed several houses in the neighbourhood, killed several people, including as the Illustrated London News says, "two little children", and injured many more. Date: 1867

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans