The Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820: A Study in Terrorism

The Cato Street Conspiracy was a plan to massacre the whole British cabinet and force a revolution. This would have been Britain’s first terrorist attack. A lecture by Professor Vic Gatrell, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge 20 February 2020 6:00pm UK Time Two hundred years ago a group of conspirators assembled in a Cato Street stable in order to massacre the whole British cabinet at dinner and bring about revolution. Had they succeeded they would have achieved modern Britain’s first terrorist atrocity. They were, however, moved by hunger and by democratic and secular principles, so are comparisons with today’s terrorists appropriate? The lecture discusses their identities, motives and impact, and the forgotten fact that their failure ended British revolutionary fantasies for a century.