Events in Luton on the afternoon of Peace day – prior to the evening violence - took a very similar form to what had happened at Doncaster, Yorks, on the previous Thursday night. The Saturday Telegraph (published a day early on July 18th) reported that, as a protest against the abandonment of a part of the Peace celebration programme there, a crowd of roughs had assembled in front of Doncaster Mansion House, where a charity ball was in progress, and broke a number of windows. The police charged the crowds, using their batons, and dispersed them. A police sergeant was struck with a stone and injured. A part of the crowd afterwards visited the Mayor's residence and broke several windows.
- The Mace Bearer (Mr Rignall) was happy because of the fact that the town mace had been recovered from the debris at the Town Hall practically intact, though naturally somewhat scorched.
- One of the Town Hall safes had been removed and opened, in the hope that the contents would be found intact. The heat of the conflagration, however, was so great as to destroy everything in the safe. Until the workmen have succeeded in getting the debris away from other safes, it was impossible to say whether their contents were in any better condition than those of the one already opened.
- In the lower department of the Education Offices some furniture was undamaged, but this was practically all that remained of the building.
- The first picture salvaged from the Town Hall fire was a photograph of the opening of Wardown, which hung in the small committee room next to the Mayor's Parlour.
- Very few people in the town knew that in the basement of the Town Hall there was maintained a considerable store of tinned meat, held for the benefit of the town in the event of serious emergency. This store of meat had been destroyed by the heat. Some of it already examined was found to be badly charred.
- Among articles unearthed from the safe in the Education Office at the Town Hall was a pocket Brownie camera, which Medical Officer of Health Dr Archibald had missed since he left on military service in September 1914, and it was unharmed by the fire.
- Mr T. G. Hobbs had consulted various friends concerned in the photographic competition he inaugurated to form a peace souvenir. He decided to hand over the whole of the prize money, amounting to £20, to the Luton police who behaved so heroically.
- To signalise appreciation of the gallantry and tact displayed by the Borough Police in the rioting, a collection among the townspeople and traders has been carried out by Messrs R. H. Marks and A. Staddon. The fund was closed yesterday [July 30th, 1919] and the promoters (who met with not a single refusal from anyone approached) have raised over £250.
- “I think Luton has reason to be proud of Chief Fire Officer Andrew and the Fire Brigade,” was the opinion repeatedly expressed by the Deputy Mayor (Councillor C. Dillingham). As a mark of his appreciation for the efforts of the Brigade he announced his intention of giving the Brigade the sum of £100 for division among the members.
- Mr Cecil Harmsworth MP motored into the town from London on the Sunday morning following the worst night of riots, and made sympathetic inquiries as to the police and other persons injured in the disturbance.
- Dr William Archibald, Medical Officer of Health and police surgeon, who attended the injured between 11pm on Peace Day and 5.30 the follow (Sunday) morning said a total number of 84 people had been listed as injured. They included 43 Luton police officers, two Herts police officers, 10 special constables, 15 firemen and 14 civilians.
- Among the records destroyed in the Town Hall fire were irreplaceable details of between 8,000 and 9,000 Lutonians who served in the Army, Navy and Air Force during the war. The records were to be compiled into a hopefully complete town Roll of Honour of WW1 ex-servicemen.
- Destruction of the Town Hall included the loss of the clock erected on the frontage of the building in August 1856 to commemorate peace at the end of the Crimean War. Some numerals from the clock face are now on display at Wardown House Museum.
- The key to the front door of the Town Hall disappeared following the riots. It was finally returned in 1975 and is now kept at Wardown House Museum.
- Hairdresser Carl Caspers, of 4 Bute Street, said more than 100 umbrellas had been lost from his shop during the riots. John Dunning Reid, manager of Brown's shoe shop at 9 Manchester Street, revealed that boots valued at £128 9s 9d were taken during the riots on Saturday and Sunday.
- One of the sequels to the burning down of Luton's Town Hall was great congestion at Bedford Prison, said the Bedford Recorder newspaper. The county gaol had great difficulty in finding accommodation for all the men against whom charges arising out of the peace day riots at Luton had been preferred.
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The Hitchin and District branch of the Soldiers' Federation has issued a manifesto, signed by Mr A. W. Day (Chairman), contradicting a persistent rumour in the district to the effect that the branch intended to follow the example of the rough element at Luton and set fire to Hitchin Town Hall. On behalf of the Executive, the Chairman says he will be glad to receive information that would bring the instigators of the lying rumour to book.
- Macdonald Odell, a Luton youth, was fined 30 shillings at Bedford Petty Sessions on August 7th, 1919, for being drunk and disorderly and using obscene language on the Midland Railway station at Bedford. When cautioned by a police officer he said: "You go away. We burnt the ----- Town Hall down in Luton."
- Although the most dangerous parts of the destroyed Town Hall were demolished within days of the riots, it was not until 1934 that large parts of the ruins were removed and the site cleared to allow work to start early in 1935 on the building of the present Town Hall, opened by the Duke of Kent on October 28th, 1936.
- There was perhaps some irony in the titles of films being shown in Luton at the time of riots, notably at the Gordon Street cinema which was showing 'Ashes of Hope'. The Wellington Street cinema was showing Charlie Chaplin's 'The Divine Sacrifice' and the Park Street cinema was showing 'The Bully Who Paid'.
- In a list published in The Times of the most serious fires in the United Kingdon during the month of July 1919, Luton's Town Hall outbreak was placed second in the amount of damage sustained - £100,000. The Beds & Herts Saturday Telegraph (August 9th, 1919) said that estimate presumably took no account of valuable documents that had been lost.