Violent London 2000 Years of Riots, Rebels and Revolts

Almost as soon as it was built, London suffered the first of many acts of violent protest, when Boudica and her followers set fire to the city in AD 60. Ever since, the capital's streets have been a forum for popular insurrection. Covering nearly 2,000 years of political protest, this is a riveting alternative history of past and present conflict.

Clive Bloom is the author of Cult Fiction, Bestsellers and Gothic Histories, among many other titles. He is Emeritus Professor of English and American Studies at Middlesex University, UK.

List of Illustrations
Map
Preface to Palgrave Edition
Acknowledgements to Palgrave Edition
A Desolation they called Peace: The Destruction of London in AD 60
‘Offence - A Londoner’: The Peasants’ Revolt to Evil May Day
‘We’ll no need the Papists noo!’: Criminalizing Catholics from the Babington Plot to Guy Fawkes
Free-Born John: Levellers, Fifth Monarchy Men and the Peace Women
Murderous Fantasies: The Great Fire to the Popish Plot
George’s War: From the Jacobites to the Gordon Riots
The Ape-Like Irish: The Aftermath of the Gordon Riots, the Catholic Emancipation Act and the Garibaldi Riots
‘Wilkes and Liberty’: The Political Riot
The United States of England: The English Jacobins to the Cato Street Conspirators
Monster Rallies: The War with the Chartists, the ‘Sally Army’ and the Rebellious Schoolchildren of London
Persecuting Pigeons: Trafalgar Square and Bloody Sunday
‘Good Old Dynamite’: London’s War with the Bombers
Women Behaving Badly: The Suffragettes
Huns and Hashish: The Yellow Peril to the German Pogrom
Comrades All: Red London to Red Ken
Brave Boys of the BUF: The Origins of London Fascism
Not Quite Kosher: The Jews of London, Jeffrey Hamm and the Return of Oswald Mosley
Alien Nation: Indian Assassins and Black Radicals
The Tiber Flowing with Much Blood: Enoch Powell, Notting Hill and Hackney
Like Rorke’s Drift: Hackney, Brick Lane and Lewisham
Anarchy in the UK: Private Armies, Vigilantes and the New Cross Fire
Living on the Front Line: Brixton to Broadwater Farm; the Stephen Lawrence Case to the Soho Bomber
One, Two, Three, What Are We Fighting For?: Grosvenor Square to Moon at the Monarchy 2000
Back to the Future: Poll Tax Rebels and Tenant Strikers
The Free Republic of Wanstonia: The Fight for London’s Green Spaces
Never Underestimate a Minority: Guerrilla Gardeners and the Countryside Alliance
The Man in the Third Carriage - 7/7 and its Consequences
Operation Glencoe – G20, Ian Tomlinson and the Future of Street Protest
Epilogue: Watching the River Flow: Surveillance and Terror
Appendix One: Shadow of a Warrior Queen: Boudicca and the Destruction of London: Unanswered Questions
Appendix Two: The Huguenot and Italian Legacy
Appendix Three: Assassination Attempts on the Royal Family
Notes
Index