From the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 10 September, 1898.

FIRE AT CANTERBURY. A PUBLIC HOUSE GUTTED.

A fire of somewhat alarming nature occurred early on Wednesday last at the "Railway Inn," Wincheap Green, occupied by a Mrs. Gambrill, through the bursting of a paraffin lamp hanging in the bar. It appears that at 12.54 P.C. Hawkes, who was on duty in Wincheap Street, heard someone calling for help, and on his arrival at Wincheap Green he saw that the bar of the "railway Inn" was on fire. Finding both doors open, and having been told that there was no one in the house, he closed them, and ran off to Fireman Dismore's residence, 27, Wincheap Street, and gave the alarm on the electric bells. On his return he saw a man named James Kenneth Young, an attendant at Chartham Asylum, who resides at the Inn, and he explained that the cause of the fire was the bursting of a paraffin lamp which hung in the bar. In the meantime someone also gave the alarm at the Police Station, and the Police were soon on the scene, Superintendent J. W. Farmery being in command. he at once saw that the bar and side room were enveloped in flames, and directed his men to connect their hose to a hydrant opposite the Victoria Hospital. Unfortunately, it was then found that the stand pipe was too short owing to the road having been raised in connection with the Presbyterian Church improvement, and the hose had to be affixed to a stand pipe opposite the "Avenue Hotel." The County Brigade then arrived and got connected with a hydrant outside Mr. Nightingale's yard in Wincheap, and the Kent Fire brigade, who came upon the scene a minute or two later, affixed their hose to a hydrant opposite Mr. Fraser's house in Castle Street. the last named brigade at once commenced to play on the flames from the back yard of the "Victoria" public house, and the Police and Kent Fire Brigades doing the same in front of the building. The interior of the premises was completely gutted, and the fire was not extinguished till about five minutes past two in the morning. The man Young, who it should be mentioned, was in a very exited condition, was subsequently seen at the Police Station and he told P.C. Swain that on the previous evening he went to see "Uncle Tom's Cabin" at the Theatre, returning to the Inn about 10.55. he then took his jacket off and went behind the bar and closed the house at 11 o'clock. He and Mrs. Gambrill and a friend were having supper in a back room between twelve and one o'clock when he smelt smoke in the bar and rushing in he saw the lamp had caught alight. He tried to smother the flames with a bag, but finding he could not do so he rushed upstairs and got four children out of the house, someone else rescuing two others. He then went into the street and shouting for help, after which he saved his bicycle, a sewing machine, and a mail cart. The owners of the Inn are Mr. F. Townsend, Hollycott Cottage, Harewood Road, Surrey, and Mr. Walter Martineau Ayres, Harpendon, Herfordshire. The furniture and contents of the house were insured in the Kent Office and the building was also insured, but in what office it is now at present unknown.