Ī large open air meeting was spontaneously organised in Soho Square on the Sunday following the attack, attended by thousands. He had been identified by police as a suspect in the bombings around an hour before he planted the bomb and was arrested at his home later that evening. Ĭopeland was still in the area, and was close enough to hear the explosion. Three people died and 83 suffered burns and injuries - four of the injured needed amputations. The unattended bag aroused the suspicions of people in the pub, but the bag exploded at 6:37 pm just as it was being investigated by the pub manager, Mark Taylor. Ĭopeland's previous bomb attacks, on 17 April in Brixton and on 24 April in Hanbury Street in Whitechapel, had made Londoners wary. It was the third bomb he had planted in London in a one-man campaign intended to stir up ethnic and homophobic tensions. Bombing Īt around 6:05pm on Friday 30th April, 1999, a bomb in a sports bag was planted in the Admiral Duncan by Neo-Nazi, David Copeland. īy the 1980s, the Admiral Duncan had become known as a gay pub, although it was not exclusively so and was still attracting a diverse clientele. It was later found by his radio producer, Douglas Cleverdon, who managed to retrace Thomas' steps. In 1953, Dylan Thomas lost the only copy of his famous radio drama Under Milk Wood in the pub, leaving it there during the course of a drinking binge. Two of the Hoxton Gang were sentenced to five and three years in prison and one member of the Sabini gang was sentenced to 12 months. In February 1930 there was a mass brawl in the pub between members of the Sabini gang and their rivals, the Hoxton Gang, which resulted in a number of serious injuries including one man having his throat cut with broken glass. ĭuring the 1920s, the Admiral Duncan was frequented by mob boss Charles "Darby" Sabini and was a gathering place for members of his gang. In December 1881, a customer received eight years' penal servitude for various offences in connection with his ejection from the Admiral Duncan public house by keeper William Gordon.
and he was subsequently transported to Australia. However, his sentence was quickly commuted to life imprisonment. Collins was convicted and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered, as the medieval punishment for high treason was then still in effect. In June of that year, Dennis Collins, a wooden-legged Irish ex-sailor living at the pub, was charged with high treason for throwing stones at King William IV at Ascot Racecourse. The Admiral Duncan has been trading since at least 1832.
The pub is named after Admiral Adam Duncan, who defeated the Dutch fleet at the Battle of Camperdown in 1797.