London Theatre - Roof Collapses on Audience

19 December 2013 | Updated 01 January 1970

A central London theatre, the Apollo on the West End’s Shaftesbury Avenue has suffered a roof collapse on a packed audience of over 700 – at 9:20 the London Ambulance Service/Fire Brigade confirmed they believed no people were still trapped inside.

However, reports of casualties have grown – at 10:00pm 85 were confirmed as injured. Four were described as in a serious – but not life threatening - condition and had been taken to hospital.

Reports from the BBC said that the Dome above the Dress Circle had come down after the audience heard ‘a strange cracking noise’ prior to debris falling. Eye witnesses outside the theatre reported people walking outside the theatre with bloodied heads. Ambulance workers ushered families into the Queens Theatre nearby.

ThisWeekinFM’s Roy Winters was quickly on the scene. He reported that Shaftesbury Avenue was cordoned off. Just before 10:00p.m. he counted 30 ambulances still in attendance. Many of the shocked and injured had been taken in at the Queens Theatre opposite. A London bus was then commandeered as an emergency triage centre. “I could see a variety of walking wounded on the bus – they had been issued with silver thermo blankets. There were still many people looking dazed and confused, while others still seemed to be covered in dust” said Roy.

“The building next door has scaffolding and covering around it that suggested refurbishment work was going on,” he continued. Though I could not state that this had any direct cause.”

Roy also spoke to a number of the many emergency services personnel on hand - all said a Dome had collapsed but had no more information to hand.

Further reports suggest that although a large portion of the Dome fell, it was made up of plaster and wood with no heavier structural elements. However, the largest chunk of debris is said to have been three to four metres in diameter and fell from fifty or sixty feet.

One man interviewed said that he, his wife and two grown-up children had escaped unscathed apart from dust inhalation. He stated that they had been in the Stalls and had been protected from the worst of the collapse by the overhang of the Circle above.

Other witnesses described the actors looking up at the ceiling and believing their reactions were part of the performance – until a sense of foreboding led to some of the audience heading for the exits.

Lucy Atherton, an eyewitness from the audience described the panic as debris fell into the Dress Circle She said: “It was pandemonium. We could hear a loud noise and we presumed there might be a leak but very quickly this turned into a cracking noise and the ceiling came down.”

The Apollo Theatre auditorium is split on four levels with a total of 775 seats (480 of them on the Stalls/Dress Circle level). The stage measures 9.2m x 8.8m.

At a very busy time in theatreland, the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is the family orientated show that has seen packed family audiences in the run-up to Christmas.

10:20p.m.

At 10:20p.m. Roy Winters was able to describe the arrival of an ‘industrial or building site sized cherry picker’ that allowed surveyors to rise above the roof to assess the damage – and possibly the cause.