diamond geezer
Thursday, April 23, 2026
Greatest London death tolls Disease 1349: Black Death (over 20,000 deaths)[also 1361, 1375, 1382, 1390, 1399, 1405, 1411, 1426, 1433, 1438, 1463, 1471, 1479 etc] 1499: plague (20,000 deaths)1563: plague again (20,000 deaths)1592/93: plague again (20,000 deaths)1603: plague again (30,000 deaths)1625: plague again (35,000 deaths)1636: plague again (10,000 deaths)1665: Great Plague (almost 100,000) (15% of the population) (7165 in the worst week) 1831: cholera (7,000 deaths)1848: cholera's back (14,000 deaths)1854: cholera again (11,000 deaths) (see John Snow ) 1866: cholera's last appearance (4300 deaths)1918/9: influenza (18,000 deaths)2020-2: Covid (20,000 deaths confirmed)
Violence 61: Boudicca sacks Londinium (Tacitus claims 70,000 deaths)1381: Peasants Revolt (1500 deaths)1450: Jack Cade's Rebellion (240 deaths)1780: Gordon Riots (850 deaths and 25 hanged)1917/18: WW1 zeppelin & biplane air raids (670 deaths)1940/41: the Blitz (40,000 deaths) (worst night 10/11 May 1941, 1436 dead) 1944/5: doodlebugs (V1s 5500 deaths, V2s 2700 deaths)1970s-90s: IRA attacks (62 deaths)2005: 7/7 bombings (56 deaths)
Weather and natural phenomena 1235: famine (20,000 deaths)1258: famine (volcano in Indonesia) (15,000 deaths)1580: earthquake (1 death)1703: Great Storm (21 deaths on land and 22 drowned)1952: Great Smog (estimated 10,000 deaths)
Fire 1212: Great Fire of London (3000 deaths)1666: Great Fire of London (6 deaths)1890: Forest Gate Residential School (26 deaths)1903: Colney Hatch Asylum (52 deaths)1980: Denmark Place club (37 deaths)1987: King's Cross fire (31 deaths)2017: Grenfell Tower (72 deaths)
Gunpowder 1650: Tower Street (67 deaths)1915: Silvertown (69 deaths)
Collapse & crush 1623: Fatal Vespers (95 deaths)1867: ice skating, Regent's Park (40 deaths)1943: Bethnal Green station (173 deaths)
River 1867: Princess Alice collision (at least 640 deaths)1898: Thames Ironworks slipway launch (35 deaths)1928: Thames flood (14 deaths)1989: Marchioness sinking (51 deaths)
Transport 1947: South Croydon (32 deaths)1948: Heathrow (20 deaths)1952: Harrow & Wealdstone (112 deaths)1957: St John's (90 deaths)1967: Hither Green (49 deaths)1975: Moorgate (43 deaths)1988: Clapham Junction (35 deaths)1999: Ladbroke Grove (31 deaths)
London's Disasters by John Withington (from Tower Hamlets libraries) (UK figures here ) (with a few exceptions) (do not base your essay or dissertation on my data)
