Notice Meetings at Trafalgar Square

This official, public notice issued by the Metropolitan Police ordering a ban on meetings in Trafalgar Square in November 1887 was printed multiple times and pasted in public areas around the Square.
In February 1886 and November 1887, mass demonstrations by thousands of unemployed men and women brought tension to the political heart of the capital. Frightened West End residents petitioned the government to close Trafalgar Square, so often the focal point for large demonstrations. On 8 November, Charles Warren, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, issued this notice in an attempt to ban all public meetings in the square. Yet the demonstrations continued, and the following Sunday, 13th November a crowd of up to 10,000 clashed with police and the military. The largely working class protestors were joined at Trafalgar Square by influential radicals and reformers including George Bernard Shaw, Eleanor Marx, William Morris & Annie Besant. The violent confrontation subsequently known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ resulted in 200 injuries and the death of three protestors.