The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820

Richard A. Gaunt reminds us that it is still possible to visit the site of a notorious conspiratorial challenge to Lord Liverpool’s government, and why this event was so significant.

At around 7.30pm on Wednesday 23 February 1820, a dozen Bow Street Runners in plain clothes, led by George Thomas Joseph Ruthven (1792-1844), stormed into a 15½ foot by 11 foot hayloft above a small stable on Cato Street, off the Edgware Road in London. Their target was a group of some two dozen armed conspirators, led by Arthur Thistlewood (1774-1820), who were making final preparations to assassinate the British cabinet...