Fatal Vespers or Doleful Evensong

On Monday 30 October from 7pm to 8.30pm, the Renaissance Singers will be peforming to remember the 400th anniversary of an event known as the Fatal Vespers or Doleful Evensong, where around 98 recusants attending a vespers at Hudson House, in the vicinity of Blackfriars at the time, died after beam in the floor collapsed due to the weight of the congregation. Dr. Eamon Duffy will give a talk. You are all most welcome.

Cover image:

Falling in of the Chapel at Blackfriars, 1623, (1897). On 26 October 1623, some three hundred people crowded into an upper room at the French ambassador's residence, Hunsdon House, in Blackfriars, London. During the service, led by two Jesuits, Robert Drury and William Whittingham, the floor collapsed due to the weight of bodies, and about ninety-five people were killed, including Drury and Whittingham. The disaster, seen by some as a punishment from God on Catholics, became known as the Fatal Vespers. From Old and New London, Volume I, by Walter Thornbury. 

©Cassell and Company, Limited, London, Paris & Melbourne, 1897