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Plot

The Clerkenwell Explosion

Clerkenwell, London

A bomb at a prison wall, and the last public hanging in England.

In December 1867 Irish Fenians set off a barrel of gunpowder against the wall of the Clerkenwell House of Detention, trying to free one of their members. The blast destroyed houses across the street and killed around twelve people.

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When
13 December 1867
Where
51.5240, -0.1050
Group
Plots

Visiting

The site lies near Clerkenwell Close. The House of Detention's tunnels survive below.

Cover of Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful? by Cale Mills
Read the full story in the book

Guy Fawkes: Traitor or Faithful?

This book asks one question and keeps asking it: was Guy Fawkes faithful, or a traitor? Most people think they already know. The answer has been handed down for four hundred years, with a bonfire and a rhyme, and it is rarely examined. From the boy from Stonegate in York to the cellar, the Tower and Westminster Hall, every chapter ends with a ledger of what it adds in his favour and what it adds against him. By the last page you may find that the answer you arrived with is not the one you leave with.

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