Police officer killed in union protest!

Published: 09 July, 2010
by PETER GRUNER

A DEMONSTRATION in Clerkenwell against poverty involved heavy-handed police tactics, an officer being stabbed to death, and a “heroic” coroner’s jury who pronounced a verdict of “justifiable homicide”.

Now local history guide David Rosenberg is including a visit to the site of the famous riot at Coldbath Fields off Farringdon Road as part of his “radical” walks of Islington programme.

The event was 187 years ago but it is often quoted today whenever police are accused of aggression, as they were at last year’s G20 demonstration in the City during which a man died and crowds were kept from leaving the area or “kettled” in by officers.

On May 13 1833 the National Union of the Working Class held a demonstration against rising prices, low wages, unemployment and poverty.

The Met police had only just been created in 1829 and was beginning to flex its muscles in the way it handled mass demonstrations. 

On that day officers were widely accused of handling the demonstration very badly.

More than 1,000 protesters turned out for the demonstration which had been declared illegal by the government. They were met by a similar number of police, who  attacked them with staves and batons.

A correspondent for The Times wrote: “The police furiously attacked the multitude with their staves which fell on every person indiscriminately; even the females did not escape the blows from their batons – men and boys were lying in every direction weltering in their blood and calling for mercy.”

But the people fought back, despite many being hurt in the fracas. Three policemen were stabbed, including one Pc Culley, who was killed. He is said to have walked into the Calthorpe Arms pub and said to the landlady: “I’m not feeling very well,” and then dropped dead.

A coroner’s inquest was held and a jury of 17 people, mainly bakers from the Grays Inn Road area, arrived at their verdict after just half an hour.

It was “justifiable homicide”, on the grounds that the police had not read the riot act, there had been no clear call to disperse, and the government did not take proper precautions to prevent the meeting assembling in the first place. Only one juror disagreed. There was, however, huge sympathy for murdered Pc Culley’s widow.

Mr Rosenberg said: “The coroner was appalled. He wanted something more like ‘murdered by the mob’. He asked for the jury to reconsider, but to no avail. The jury were later treated like heroes and carried through the streets to cheers. A boat trip was organised on the Thames and they were saluted with canons when they reached Twickenham.”

The man arrested for the murder was later acquitted at the Old ­Bailey. The jury also received medals which said: “In honour of the men who nobly withstood the dictation of the coroner.”

During his walk Mr Rosenberg will also reveal the secrets of one of Britain’s vilest Victorian jails, Coldbath prison, where inmates were subjected to the “silent treatment” – verbal communication was banned.

“Prisoners created a language of their own with winks and signals to create sign language,” said Mr Rosenberg.

Many radicals and dissenters ended up in Coldbath but it was also used for vagrants, drunks and beggars. It opened in 1794 and closed about 100 years later. The site is now Mount Pleasant Sorting Office opposite Exmouth Market.

Mr Rosenberg said: “Sources suggest that people had such distaste for the word ‘Coldbath’ that when the prison was pulled down they insisted the site be given a ‘nice’ name instead. That apparently is where we get Mount Pleasant.”

Part-time teacher, writer and academic Mr Rosenberg – who also runs walks around the “radical” Jewish East End – will be taking groups on a two-and-a-half-hour, three-mile tour of Islington, exploring the lives of important figures from history, going back more than  200 years.

• Visionaries, Dissenters and Rebels – a walk through Islington’s radical history, will be taking place at 11am on Saturday, July 10. Cost is £6/£4. 

Book a place at www.eastendwalks.com