From the Peasants' Revolt (1381) to the Gordon Riots (1780), a walk exploring London's most deadly outbreaks of civil disorder

Violent mobs have rampaged around London on more than one occasion in its 2,000-year-old history. This walk in the City visits key sites to tell the stories of the most deadly street fighting, from the Peasant’s Revolt and Jack Cade’s rebellion in medieval times, to the Gordon Riots of 1780, that saw mobs attack Newgate Gaol and the Bank of England.

Medieval London was never successfully besieged – the only attackers who ever found their way into the walled city were allowed in. By whom, and why? Centuries later after the walls were no longer a defence, Charles Dickens describes how the crowds directed their anger against the Newgate Gaol, the Bank of England and the Tower of London.

It took the entire might of the state to quell these rebellions – and each altered the course of British history in their own ways.