Anarchism and Political Violence in Late Victorian London

London in the 1880s and early 1890s sheltered political exiles from across Europe while also sustaining small anarchist, socialist and revolutionary circles. Newspapers and officials frequently blurred distinctions between political debate, police informants and organised violence.

Bomb attacks elsewhere in Europe and Britain intensified fears of an international anarchist conspiracy. The accidental death of Martial Bourdin while carrying explosives near Greenwich Observatory in 1894 became the most famous London incident associated with this climate.