Brooks's Club bombing

The Brooks's Club bomb attack occurred on 22 October 1974 on St James's Street in London. Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers threw a 5 lb (2.27 kg) bomb into an empty dining room causing extensive damage and injuring three members of staff of Brooks's, a London gentlemen's club. It was one of many such IRA attacks in Northern Ireland and England during the Troubles.

Brooks's Club bomb attack
Part of the Troubles
LocationBrooks's, St James's Street, London
Date22 October 1974
22:00 (GMT)
Attack type
Bomb
Deaths0
Injured3
PerpetratorProvisional IRA

Background

In March 1973 the Provisional IRA attacked England for the first time when they exploded two car bombs in the middle of London, one just outside the Old Bailey and the other just off Whitehall. One person was killed and 250 others injured.

Brooks's Club is on St James's, a London street 400 yards away from the Army and Navy Club, which the IRA had attacked two weeks earlier.[1]

Bombing

At around 22:00 an IRA volunteer threw a 5 lb bomb with a short lit fuse through a glass window into the outer dining room area of Brooks's called the anteroom. Three staff members of Brooks's were in the room next door cleaning up; on hearing the smashing glass, they rushed in to see what had caused the noise, but when they entered the room the bomb exploded, causing serious injury to two of the three staff and minor injury to the third. The worst injuries were inflicted on one wine waiter who had to have a part of his left leg amputated, while another had shrapnel blown into his left leg.[2][3]

The dining room was wrecked and some nearby rooms suffered minor damage. Former British Prime Minister Edward Heath, who had been eating his dinner nearby, was one of the first people on the scene. Heath said: "I don't think it was meant for me. I didn't decide to have dinner out until a quarter of an hour before". He went on to say: "There is a lot of damage, the ceiling is down in one room and it is a shambles."[4]

Aftermath

Two days later, on 24 October, the IRA struck again with another 5 lb bomb, this time against a cottage in the grounds of Harrow School. Nobody was hurt in the bombing. This was the sixth bomb attack the IRA carried out in England that month.[5]

References
  1. Steven P. Moysey, The Road to Balcombe Street - The IRA Reign of Terror in London: Second Edition pg.99 (ISBN 978-0-7890-2913-3)
  2. Steven P. Moysey, The Road to Balcombe Street - The IRA Reign of Terror in London: Second Edition pg.99, 100 (ISBN 978-0-7890-2913-3)
  3. Gordon McKie (28 January 2015). British Clubs and Societies: An A-Z. p. 25. ISBN 9781784627676. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  4. "BBC ON THIS DAY | 22 | 1974: Bomb blast in London club". BBC News. 22 October 1966. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
  5. "CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1974". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 December 2016.

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