Chartist plans for a rising on 16-18th June 1848 frustrated by Spycops
While the history books frequently write that the Chartist rally for the vote on Kennington Common on Monday 10th April 1848 was the end of any revolutionary threat in what was a year or revolt and revolution around the globe that was far from the truth.
The Chartist left continued to organise and look for ways to get the vote which given the 10th April focused on extra-Parliamentary protest.
I’ve written about the protests held on Monday 12th June 1848. There was nearly a rising in Bradford but the authorities were focused on London. All meetings were banned although there was no expectation that the Chartists would pay attention and they didn’t.
Chartists gathered on Bishop Bonner’s Fields in East London on that day as did the authorities with a show of force from the police and special constables with the military in reserve. The day ended in stalemate.
There was however a possible plan for a rising on the weekend of 16th-18th June 1848.
At a meeting held in the Albion Beer House on Bethnal Green Rd on 12th June a plan for a rising was drawn up.
There was a Committee of 24 who were involved in the planning but it included two police spies. George Davis from Greenwich and Thomas Riordain who was the Northern Star’s Irish reporter.
Riordain claimed the plan involved barricades on the Strand, Ludgate Hill and Cheapside. Theatres and other buildings were to be set on fire and pawnbrokers and gunsmiths raided for weapons. In South London the Old Kent Rd police station was to be taken to prevent the military proceeding across the Thames.
The Chartist Executive then disbanded the committee and the plan went no further. Its not known why but McDouall the Chartist Executive member responsible for the plan thought police spies had become aware of it. He named several people, none of whom, however were the actual spies.
It may seem familiar to those active on the left in recent decades trying to guess who if anyone were the Spycops in their ranks..
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