1993 Bishopsgate bombing

The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on Saturday 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated an ANFO truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. A news photographer was killed in the explosion and 44 people were injured; the damage cost £350 million to repair. As a result of the bombing, which occurred 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.

Background

In early 1993 the Northern Ireland peace process was at a delicate stage, with attempts to broker an IRA ceasefire ongoing.Gerry Adams of Sinn Féin and John Hume of the Social Democratic and Labour Party had been engaged in private dialogue since 1988, with a view to establishing a broad Irish nationalist coalition. British Prime Minister John Major had refused to openly enter into talks with Sinn Féin until the IRA declared a ceasefire. The risk of an IRA attack on the City of London 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 sufficient personnel, equipment and funds to launch a sustained campaign in England. During the Troubles the IRA had bombed financial targets in London on a number of occasions, most notably on 10 April 1992 when a truck bomb exploded outside the Baltic Exchange on St. Mary Axe. The Baltic Exchange bombing caused £800 million worth of damage (the equivalent of £1,460 million in 2016), £200 million more than the total damage caused by the 10,000 explosions that had occurred during the Troubles in Northern Ireland up to that point.

Bishopsgate

Coordinates: 51°30′59″N 0°04′53″W / 51.5163°N 0.08145°W / 51.5163; -0.08145

Bishopsgate is one of the 25 wards of the City of London and also the name of a major road (part of the A10) between Gracechurch Street and Norton Folgate in the northeast corner of London's main financial district. Bishopsgate is named after one of the original eight gates in the London Wall. The site of this former gate is marked by a stone bishop's mitre, fixed high upon a building located at Bishopsgate's junction with Wormwood Street, by the gardens there and facing the Heron Tower.

Although tens of thousands of people commute to and work in the ward, it has a resident population of only 222 (2011).

Ward geography

The ward (which is large by City standards) is bounded by Worship Street to the north, where the edge of the City meets the boroughs of Islington and Hackney. It neighbours Portsoken ward and the borough of Tower Hamlets in the east. The western boundary is formed by Old Broad Street and Broad Street ward itself. Bishopsgate also bounds the wards of Aldgate (southeast), Coleman Street (west), Cornhill (southwest) and Lime Street (south). Bishopsgate ward straddles the (now former) line of the Wall and the old gate and is often (even today) divided into "Within" and "Without" parts, with a deputy (alderman) appointed for each part.

Bishopsgate (disambiguation)

Bishopsgate was a gate in the City wall of London.

It gives its name to:

Other uses

Heron Tower

Coordinates: 51°30′58″N 0°4′51″W / 51.51611°N 0.08083°W / 51.51611; -0.08083

The Heron Tower (officially 110 Bishopsgate) is a commercial skyscraper in London. It stands 230 metres (755 ft) tall including its 28-metre (92 ft) mast (202 metres (663 ft) excluding the mast) making it the tallest building in the City of London financial district and the third tallest in Greater London and the United Kingdom, after the Shard in Southwark and One Canada Square at Canary Wharf. The Heron Tower is located on Bishopsgate and is bordered by Camomile Street, Outwich Street and Houndsditch.

Construction of the building started in 2007 and was completed in 2011. It is owned by Heron International and is generally known as the Heron Tower, though following a naming dispute in 2014 involving the tenant Salesforce.com the City of London ruled in favour of the property being officially named 110 Bishopsgate. The tower initially struggled to attract tenants in the depths of the Great Recession, but is now fully let.