Four members of an IRA active service unit who waged a 14-month bombing campaign in the mid-1970s, leaving in their wake 40 explosions and 35 dead, lived in what was described as a 'bomb factory' in Stoke Newington's Milton Grove.

In information released recently in a confidential Downing Street file by the National Archive, it was revealed that a death list and names of potential targets - including the British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Museum, Somerset House and several others - were found in the flat, but the information was suppressed by order of the Home Office and Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who considered it 'low grade and out of date' and neither wished to alarm the intended targets. Perhaps also it was not released at the time as it may have been considered circumstantial (apparently it was not particularly well organised and may not have survived judicial scrutiny). Nevertheless, the 'Balcombe Street Gang', as they became known following their surrender in December 1975 after a six-day siege, holding two hostages, by the police in Balcombe Street, Marylebone, received 23-year jail sentences.

Four years earlier, at 395 Amhurst Road, the 'Stoke Newington Four' (soon to become eight and become known as the Angry Brigade) were arrested for posession of gelegnite, sten gun, detonators etc. Four of them were eventually found guilty and sentenced for up to fifteen years for conspiracy to engage in bombing and possession of explosives (read Anne Beech's article in our Winter 2000 issue - see  back issues on this website).

What is it about Stoke Newington and its anarchic/destructive dismissal of and refusal to adhere to the existing State order? There are plenty of other examples over the years. Indeed, it's been going on for centuries.