The managers of the theatre find it necessary on 'Boxing Day' to give two performances; in the afternoon and again in the evening. On Monday afternoon the theatre opened at half past one and was well filled. The gallery audience - chiefly composed of young men and boys of the lowest classes – was as usual the largest. All went well until about half past four or five when the performance was nearly concluded, but though the audience had not yet left the theatre another thronged on the gallery stairs in waiting for the evening's performance. The managers had provided for the exit of the afternoon's performance by another way and as soon as they were cleared out the crowd on the gallery stairs were to be admitted, to take their places.

This then was the state of things immediately preceding the calamity- an unruly rabble was packed nearly to suffocation on the stairs as far up as the money-takers box, where a barrier impeded its further ascent. And a kindred rabble within the building was on the point of making its exit.

At that unhappy moment an escape of gas is said to have taken place on the landing. Then it appears a slight explosion was heard and then arose an instantaneous cry of 'Fire!' which was caught up from mouth to mouth.

Now ensued a scene which it may be said baffled all description. The whole mass of people on the upper portion of the stairs in their anxiety to make their escape, precipitated themselves on the crowd below, while those on the stairs of the first landing unconscious of what had occurred kept ascending. The result was that more than one hundred people became compactly wedged between the two masses. The shrieks, cries and smothered groans that arose as the crowd swayed about or got dashed against the balustrades or were thrown down and trodden upon were awful.

Some of those on the top flight of stairs fairly threw themselves down onto the heads of people below and unable to recover their legs fell through and were smothered in the crowd; some threw themselves over the balustrades while others, wedged in and unable to move, held put against suffocation and broken ribs as they best could. This terrible scene it is said lasted from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour.

When the crowd had been got out sixteen people were found to be dead or dying.

Mr Towers, the lessee of the theatre gives another account of the accident. He says that a lad sitting in the boxes had some fuses in his pocket which becoming by some means ignited set fire to the skirts of his coat. The boy in his alarm cried out 'I'm on fire!'. That immediately made the crowds start up from the boxes and rush towards the doors for escape. The panic spread and extended itself to the gallery and immediately a rush was made en mass to get out. The calamity was greatly increased by a gas pipe being disturbed by the people in their anxious efforts to escape. A slight explosion took place thus causing an increased renewal of the panic that led to the unfortunate loss of life that ensued.