Peter Daniel talks about the Cato Street Conspiracy, a daring plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister and his cabinet. On 1 May 1820, outside Newgate Prison, in front of a huge crowd of onlookers, William Davidson and his fellow Cato Street conspirators—Arthur Thistlewood, James Ings, Richard Tidd and John Brunt— were hanged for high treason.
Then they were decapitated in the last brutal act of a murderous conspiracy, ‘The West End Job’ as they’d called it, that aimed to assassinate Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and his cabinet and spark a British version of the French Revolution. The Cato Street conspirators matched the Gunpowder plotters in their daring—and in their fate—but sadly their story is almost unknown by people today.
Thanks to a grant from the Heritage Fund, Westminster Archives have been working to raise awareness of an event that has both local and national significance. This talk has a particular focus on Jamaican conspirator, William Davidson.
Since we began our project, in January 2020, the Netflix blockbuster, Bridgerton, has stimulated a lot of interest in Black Londoners of the period. In doing so, we hope it will shine a spotlight on Davidson’s incredible story that deserves to be more widely known. To find out more visit our website: [ Ссылка ]
The Cato Street Conspiracy project was funded thanks to the generosity of players of the National Lottery by a £74,000 grant from the Heritage Fund.

This event was recorded by City of Westminster Archives Centre on Friday 30 April 2021
(Subtitles for this video have been auto-generated and will contain inaccuracies.)



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