Walk through history of Cold Bath riots

Published: 02 July, 2010
by PETER GRUNER

THE infamous Cold Bath riots in Clerkenwell  almost 200 years ago are the subject of a history tour next week.

The event involved  a mass demonstration against poverty, a policeman stabbed to death and a coroner’s jury who surprisingly pronounced a verdict of “justifiable homicide”.

Guide David Rosenberg includes the site off Farringdon Road as part of his “radical” walks of Islington. More than 1,000 people turned up for the demonstration in 1833 which had been declared illegal. They were met by a similar number of police, who ringed the demonstrators and attacked them. But the people fought back and many were hurt. 

A police officer was killed but a coroner’s  jury ruled 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. 

• Visionaries, Dissent­ers and Rebels: A Walk Through Islington’s Radical History will take place at 11am on Saturday July 10. £6/£4. To book email David Rosenberg: david@eastendwalks.com