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The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reu ...
(IRA) detonated a powerful
truck bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...
on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to it occurring on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga's church and wrecked Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower. As a result of the bombing, which happened just over a year after the bombing of the nearby Baltic Exchange, a " ring of steel" was implemented to protect the City, and many firms introduced disaster recovery plans in case of further attacks or similar disasters. £350 million was spent on repairing damage. In 1994 detectives believed they knew the identities of the IRA bombers, but lacked sufficient evidence to arrest them.


Background

Since the beginning of its campaign in the early 1970s, the IRA had carried out many bomb attacks on military, political and commercial targets in England. By bombing commercial targets it sought to damage the economy and cause severe disruption, which it believed would put pressure on the British government to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland. In early 1993, the
Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political developm ...
was at a delicate stage, with attempts to broker an IRA ceasefire ongoing. Gerry Adams of
Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...
and
John Hume John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Ire ...
of the
Social Democratic and Labour Party The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Ireland ...
had been engaged in private dialogue since 1988, with a view to establishing a broad
Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...
coalition. British Prime Minister John Major had refused to openly enter into talks with Sinn Féin until the IRA declared a ceasefire.''Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin'', p. 335. The risk of an IRA attack on the
City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...
had increased due to the lack of progress with political talks, resulting in a warning being circulated to all police forces in Britain highlighting intelligence reports of a possible attack, as it was felt the IRA had enough personnel, equipment and funds to launch a sustained campaign in
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. On 10 April 1992, the IRA detonated a truck bomb outside the
Baltic Exchange The Baltic Exchange (incorporated as The Baltic Exchange Limited) is a membership organisation for the maritime industry, and freight market information provider for the trading and settlement of physical and derivative contracts. It was locate ...
on St. Mary Axe. The Baltic Exchange bombing caused £800 million worth of damage (the equivalent of £ million in ), £200 million more than the total damage caused by the 10,000 explosions that had occurred during
the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
up to that point.


Bombing

In March 1993, an Iveco
tipper truck A dump truck, known also as a dumping truck, dump trailer, dumper trailer, dump lorry or dumper lorry or a dumper for short, is used for transporting materials (such as dirt, gravel, or demolition waste) for construction as well as coal. A typ ...
was stolen in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, and repainted from white to dark blue. A 1 tonne
ANFO ANFO ( ) (or AN/FO, for ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) is a widely used bulk industrial explosive. It consists of 94% porous prilled ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) (AN), which acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel, and 6% number 2 fue ...
bomb made by the IRA's South Armagh Brigade had been smuggled into England and was placed in the truck, hidden underneath a layer of tarmac. At about 9 am on 24 April, two volunteers from an IRA
active service unit An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units. T ...
drove the truck containing the bomb onto Bishopsgate. They parked the truck outside
99 Bishopsgate 99 Bishopsgate is a commercial skyscraper in London. It is located on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in the City of London financial district. The building is tall and has 25 office floors, with a total net lettable floor space of circa . The ...
, which was then the UK headquarters of HSBC, located by the junction with Wormwood Street and Camomile Street, and left the area in a car driven by an accomplice. A series of telephone warnings were then sent from a phonebox in
Forkhill Forkhill or Forkill ( , ; ) is a small village and civil parish in south County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is within the Ring of Gullion and in the 2011 Census it had a recorded population of 498. It lies within the former barony of Orior Upp ...
,
County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of an ...
, Northern Ireland, with the caller using a recognised IRA codeword and stating " here'sa massive bomb… clear a wide area". The first warnings were sent about one hour before the bomb detonated. Two police officers were already making inquiries into the truck when the warnings were received, and police began evacuating the area. The bomb exploded at 10:27 am, causing extensive damage to buildings along a significant stretch of Bishopsgate. The blast raised a
mushroom cloud A mushroom cloud is a distinctive mushroom-shaped flammagenitus cloud of debris, smoke and usually condensed water vapor resulting from a large explosion. The effect is most commonly associated with a nuclear explosion, but any sufficiently ener ...
that could be seen across much of London and gouged a 15-foot wide crater in the street. Buildings up to 500 metres away were damaged, with 1,500,000 sq ft (140,000 m2) of office space being affected and over 500 tonnes of glass broken. The NatWest Tower — at the time the City's tallest skyscraper – was amongst the structures badly damaged, with many windows on the east side of the tower destroyed; one newspaper described it as "black gaps punched its fifty-two floors like a mouth full of bad teeth". Damage extended as far north as Liverpool Street station and south beyond
Threadneedle Street Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, England, between Bishopsgate at its northeast end and Bank junction in the southwest. It is one of nine streets that converge at Bank. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. History The stree ...
. St Ethelburga's church, seven metres away from the bomb, collapsed as a result of the explosion. The cost of repair was estimated at the time at £1 billion. Civilian casualties were low as it was a Saturday morning and the City was typically occupied by only a small number of residents, office workers, security guards, builders, and maintenance staff. Forty-four people were injured by the bomb and '' News of the World'' photographer Ed Henty was killed after ignoring police warnings and rushing to the scene. The truck-bomb produced the explosive power of 1,200 kg of
TNT Trinitrotoluene (), more commonly known as TNT, more specifically 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and by its preferred IUPAC name 2-methyl-1,3,5-trinitrobenzene, is a chemical compound with the formula C6H2(NO2)3CH3. TNT is occasionally used as a reagen ...
.


Reaction

The business community and media called for increased security in the City, with one leading City figure calling for "a medieval-style walled enclave to prevent terrorist attacks". Prime Minister John Major received a telephone call from Francis McWilliams, the
Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...
, reminding him that "the City of London earned £17 billion last year for the nation as a whole. Its operating environment and future must be preserved". Major, McWilliams and Chancellor of the Exchequer
Norman Lamont Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, (born 8 May 1942) is a British politician and former Conservative MP for Kingston-upon-Thames. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1990 until 1993. He was created a life peer in ...
made public statements that business would continue as normal in the City and that the Bishopsgate bombing would not achieve a lasting effect. Major later gave an account of the public stance taken by his government on the bombing: John Hume and Gerry Adams issued their first joint statement on the same day as the bombing, stating, "We accept that the Irish people as a whole have a right to national self-determination. This is a view shared by a majority of the people of this island, though not by all its people", and that, "The exercise of self-determination is a matter for agreement between the people of Ireland". The IRA's reaction appeared in 29 April edition of '' An Phoblacht'', highlighting how the bombers exploited a security loophole after "having spotted a breach in the usually tight security around the City". There was also a message from the IRA leadership, calling for "the British establishment to seize the opportunity and to take the steps needed for ending its futile and costly war in Ireland. We again emphasise that they should pursue the path of peace or resign themselves to the path of war". The IRA also attempted to apply indirect pressure to the British government with a statement sent to non-United States foreign-owned businesses in the City, warning that: The
City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...
's chief planning officer called for the demolition of buildings damaged in the explosion, including the NatWest Tower, seeing an opportunity to rid the City of some of the 1970s architecture and build a new state-of-the-art structure as a "symbol of defiance to the IRA".''Terrorism, Risk and the City: The Making of a Contemporary Urban Landscape'', p. 95. His comments were not endorsed by the Corporation themselves, who remarked that the NatWest Tower was an integral part of the City's skyline.


Aftermath

In May 1993, the City of London Police confirmed a planned security cordon for the City which had been conceived by its commissioner Owen Kelly, and on 3 July 1993 the ' ring of steel' was introduced. Most routes into the City were closed or made exit-only, and the remaining eight routes into the City had checkpoints manned by armed police. CCTV cameras were also introduced to monitor vehicles entering the area, including two cameras at each entry point – one to read the
vehicle registration plate A vehicle registration plate, also known as a number plate (British English), license plate (American English), or licence plate ( Canadian English), is a metal or plastic plate attached to a motor vehicle or trailer for official identific ...
and another to monitor the driver and passenger. Over 70 police-controlled cameras monitored the City, but to increase coverage of public areas "Camera Watch" was launched in September 1993 to encourage co-operation on surveillance between the police, private companies and the Corporation of London. Nine months after the scheme was launched only 12.5% of buildings had camera systems, but by 1996 well over 1,000 cameras in 376 separate systems were operational in the City. The bombing resulted in a number of companies changing their working practices and drawing up plans to deal with any future incidents. Documents were blown out of windows of multi-storey buildings by the force of the explosion; police destroyed all such documents found. This resulted in risk managers subsequently demanding a "clear desk" policy at the end of each working day to improve
information security Information security, sometimes shortened to InfoSec, is the practice of protecting information by mitigating information risks. It is part of information risk management. It typically involves preventing or reducing the probability of unauthorize ...
. The attack also prompted British and American financial companies to prepare disaster recovery plans in case of future attacks. The first
World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...
in New York City in February 1993 had caused bankruptcy in 40% of the affected companies within two years of the attack, according to a report from analysts IDC. As a result of the Baltic Exchange and Bishopsgate bomb attacks, City-based companies were well-prepared to deal with the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
in 2001, with a spokesman for the Corporation of London stating: "After the IRA bombs, firms redoubled their disaster recovery plans and the City recovered remarkably quickly. It has left the City pretty well-prepared for this sort of thing now." The initial estimate of £1 billion worth of damage was later downgraded, and the total cost of reconstruction was £350 million. The subsequent payouts by insurance companies resulted in them suffering heavy losses causing a crisis in the industry, including the near-collapse of the
Lloyd's of London Lloyd's of London, generally known simply as Lloyd's, is an insurance and reinsurance market located in London, England. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company; rather, Lloyd's is a corporate body gove ...
market. A government-backed insurance scheme, Pool Re, was subsequently introduced in Britain, with the government acting as a "re-insurer of last resort" for losses over £75 million. The bombing, mounted at a cost of £3,000, was the last major bombing in England during that phase of the Northern Ireland conflict. The campaign of bombing of the UK's financial centre, described by author and journalist Ed Moloney as "possibly the RA'smost successful military tactic since the start of the Troubles", was suspended by the IRA to allow the political progress made by Gerry Adams and
John Hume John Hume (18 January 19373 August 2020) was an Irish nationalist politician from Northern Ireland, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the recent political history of Ireland, as one of the architects of the Northern Ire ...
to continue. The IRA carried out a number of smaller bomb and mortar attacks in England during the remainder of 1993 and in early 1994, before declaring a "complete cessation of military operations" on 31 August 1994. The ceasefire ended on 9 February 1996 when two people were killed in the IRA's bombing of London Docklands, which targeted London's secondary financial district,
Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...
.


Subsequent events

In July 2000, it was announced that '' Punch'' magazine was to be prosecuted for contempt of court after publishing an article by former
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
agent
David Shayler David Shayler (; born 24 December 1965) is a former British MI5 officer and a conspiracy theorist. Shayler was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act 1989 for passing secret documents to ''The Mail on Sunday'' in August 1997 that alleged th ...
. Shayler's article claimed MI5 could have stopped the Bishopsgate bombing, which a spokesman for Attorney General Lord Williams claimed was a breach of a 1997 court injunction preventing Shayler disclosing information on security or intelligence matters. In November 2000, ''Punch'' and its editor were found guilty and fined £20,000 and £5,000 respectively. In March 2001, the editor successfully appealed against his conviction and fine, with an appeal judge accusing the Attorney General of acting like a press censor and ruling that the 1997 injunction was in breach of the
European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...
. In December 2002, this decision was overturned at the
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminste ...
, with five law lords ruling that editor James Steen's publication of Shayler's article was indeed in contempt. On 24 April 2013, a commemorative dinner was held by the Felix Fund, a charity for bomb disposal experts and their families, at the Merchant Taylors' Hall on
Threadneedle Street Threadneedle Street is a street in the City of London, England, between Bishopsgate at its northeast end and Bank junction in the southwest. It is one of nine streets that converge at Bank. It lies in the ward of Cornhill. History The stree ...
, to mark 20 years since the Bishopsgate bombing.''London Evening Standard'', page 37, 25 April 2013.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishopsgate bombing 1993 in London Terrorist incidents in London in the 1990s Terrorist incidents in the United Kingdom in 1993 Attacks on buildings and structures in 1993 Attacks on buildings and structures in London Car and truck bombings in London 1993 murders in the United Kingdom 1993 crimes in the United Kingdom Explosions in 1993 History of the City of London Provisional IRA bombings in London April 1993 events in the United Kingdom