Bishopsgate Bombing
City, London The 24th of April 1993 AD
The sheer numbers tell the story of the Bishopsgate bomb which exploded in the City of London on April 24 1993. The device is calculated to have weighed a tonne; it caused some 500 tonnes of glass in the financial district to break; and the damage, which included the demolition of a medieval church, St Ethelburga’s, has been estimated at around £500 million. A far smaller number in the end is more significant: the bomb cost the life of one man, Ed Henty a News of the World photographer. It also injured 44 more people.
It was later found that the Provisional IRA had planted the bomb, loaded on the back of a tipper truck beneath some asphalt. They chose a Saturday morning to minimise casualties, and gave a warning well in advance of the 10.25am explosion, but this was a cynical move in the negotiations about the future of Ireland then being held. It probably delayed the eventual settlement and hardened attitudes against the IRA; and it led to the City of London adopting ring-of-steel measures to defend against further attacks.
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