Dynamite, Treason & Plot

Terrorism in Victorian & Edwardian London

Most people are unaware that London was a terrorist target as long ago as 1867. Numerous parallels can be drawn with current news stories. The worst terrorist bombing before 7/7 was in Clerkenwell in 1867 (12 people were killed). In the years since the 7/7 attacks on the London transport system, many people in Britain seem to have become convinced that we live in uniquely dangerous times and that the threat from terrorism has never been greater. In fact, terrorist attacks have been a feature of life in London for many years. The worst terrorist bombing in the capital before 7/7 took place in 1867, when 12 people were killed in an explosion in Clerkenwell. The first person to be killed by a bombing on the Tube died in 1897. From the deadly Fenian campaign against high-profile targets in the capital to the anarchist bombing of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, late 16th- and early 20th-century London saw a constant succession of terrorist threats. This book details the emergence of modern terrorism, a phenomenon which has its roots in Victorian London.