The London nail bombings, 20 years on
Series of bombs targeting the capital’s black, Bangladeshi and gay communities were UK's deadliest neo-Nazi attacks
Twenty years ago, the UK experienced the deadliest far-right atrocity in the nation’s history - the London nail bombings.
On three consecutive weekends in April 1999, hidden bombs were detonated in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho targeting London’s gay, black and Bangladeshi communities. Each bomb was filled with up to 1,500 nails and placed in a nondescript black holdall.
In total, three people were killed – including 27-year-old Andrea Dykes, who was four months pregnant – and 140 people were injured, four of whom lost limbs.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Three days after the third bombing, the Metropolitan Police’s anti-terror squad charged 22-year-old David Copeland with murder. Copeland was a neo-Nazi militant, a former member of the British National Party who had recently become a regional leader of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi organisation with links to far-right terror group Combat 18.
This week, the BBC’s Newsnight programme looked back at the attacks and the rise of far-right terrorism in the UK.
What happened?
The first attack took place on Saturday 17 April 1999 in Brixton, south London, long home to a large black population. The bomb, made using explosives from fireworks, was taped inside a sports bag and left at Brixton Market.
The explosion outside an Iceland supermarket at 5.26pm “sent nails flying in all directions as Saturday shoppers, including families with young children, milled around the market”, reported The Observer at the time. The windows of shops and a passing bus were blown out and shoppers knocked down. A total of 48 people were injured, but no one was killed.
Immediately after the bomb in Brixton, “a sense of foreboding” fell over Brick Lane – the heart of London’s Bangladeshi community, said The Independent. “Phone calls and letters warned local Bangladeshi-born businessmen and community leaders: ‘You are next’”, the newspaper added.
And on the following Saturday, 24 April, a Brick Lane resident noticed an unattended black holdall in the street. Finding the nearest police station closed, he put the holdall in the boot of his car and prepared to call 999. Moments later, the bomb went off. Thanks to the man’s intervention, only seven people were injured.
Later that day, the police received their first tip-off when “a 999 call was made from New Malden, southwest London, claiming [neo-Nazi terrorist organisation] Combat 18 was responsible”, said The Independent.
After two bombings on consecutive Saturday afternoons, “detectives were certain that the London nail bomber would strike a third time”, reported The Daily Telegraph.
Indeed, the final bomb was detonated the following Friday evening inside The Admiral Duncan pub on Old Compton Street in Soho, a traditional haunt for the capital’s gay community. The pub was crowded as revellers celebrated the start of a bank holiday weekend, and this attack was the most devastating of the three, killing three people and injuring a further 76.
Who was David Copeland?
Four far-right groups initially vied to claim responsibility for the attacks: Combat 18, White Wolves, the English National Party and the English Liberation Party. But eventually the Metropolitan Police sourced CCTV footage from the Iceland supermarket in Brixton, where the first bomb had gone off, showing a young man with a white baseball cap carrying the black holdall.
Publication of the image “prompted a number of calls, one of which was to identify David Copeland”, reported the Daily Telegraph. On 2 May 1999, Copeland was arrested in his bedroom where he “had the ingredients for his fourth bomb ready”, added the newspaper.
Following his arrest, Copeland told police he wanted the bombings to “set fire to the country and stir up a racial war”. According to the BBC, when asked why he had targeted ethnic minorities, he replied: “Because I don’t like them, I want them out of this country, I believe in the master race”.
On 30 June 2000, Copeland was convicted of three counts of murder and planting bombs and given six concurrent life sentences. In 2015 he was sentenced to three additional years in prison for attacking a fellow inmate.
What has the legacy been?
Some commentators have suggested that the London nail bombings signified a shocking end to a notably peaceful decade.
Writing in Metro, Siddy Shivdasani argues “in many ways, before the Brixton bomb, with the benefit of hindsight, they were innocent times”.
“It was a pre-cursor of much worse to come after a sustained period of optimism for world peace in the Nineties”, he writes.
Four far-right terror plots have been foiled since March 2017 and one – the Finsbury Park mosque attack – succeeded.
In 2016 the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox was found to have a “terrorist connection” and the neo-Nazi terrorist group National Action was banned as a result.
On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, London’s Met Police have vowed to “never be complacent in dealing with extremism”.
“The anniversary of these atrocities serves as a reminder that we can never be complacent in dealing with extremism and people who harbour radical views based on racial, religious and other forms of prejudice,” said Commander Mark McEwan.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
The controversy over rewilding in the UK
The Explainer 'Irresponsible and illegal' release of four lynxes into Scottish Highlands 'entirely counterproductive' say conservationists
By The Week UK Published
-
How to decide on the right student loan repayment plan
The explainer President-elect Donald Trump seems unlikely to approve more student loan forgiveness, so you may want to consider other options
By Becca Stanek, The Week US Published
-
Crossword: January 15, 2025
The Week's daily crossword
By The Week Staff Published
-
What's Elon Musk's agenda with Europe's far-right politics?
Today's Big Question From broadsides against the UK government to boosting Germany's ultra-nationalist AFD party, the world's richest man is making waves across the Atlantic
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Elon Musk's support for AfD makes waves in Germany
Talking Point The tech billionaire has faced a vocal backlash after backing far-right movement shunned by mainstream parties
By The Week UK Published
-
Hebdo attack: 10 years on, are we all still 'Charlie'?
Talking Point Terror attack on French satirical magazine united the Western world in defence of free speech, but a decade on some claim 'the killers have won'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
'The scene runs as intended the vast majority of the time'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
'This growing lack of social exposure is terrible for us and terrible for democracy'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
New Orleans truck attack linked to ISIS kills 15
Speed Read A pickup truck drove into a crowd on New Year's Day in the French Quarter
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New Year's Honours: why the controversy?
Today's Big Question London Mayor Sadiq Khan and England men's football manager Gareth Southgate have both received a knighthood despite debatable records
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published