3-071-219 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Attempt to Blow Up The Mansion House: recess in which the powder was placed, 1881. 'A box containing nearly 40 lb. of gunpowder, with a fuse by which it was to have been exploded, wrapped in brown paper already ignited and smouldering...was found in a recess of the east wall of the Mansion House, about half an hour before midnight. The police-constable on night duty, Samuel Cowell, instantly extinguished the smouldering paper, and took the box to the police station in Bow-lane...Our Illustration shows the exact place in which it was found, which is in Church-passage, a narrow alley...that leads to Walbrook...Beneath the east window...is the recess shown in our Illustration, fenced in by an iron railing. It was formerly the opening of an old window that has been built up; and the ledge upon which the box was put had been the windowsill. The place is very lonely and deserted at night, but the police-constable goes by it every quarter of an hour...But for the policeman's opportune discovery, a very serious explosion would have occurred...The City police...are in communication on the subject with the Home Office authorities and the Criminal Investigation Department, and a reward of £100 has been offered by the Corporation of London'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.