Illuminated29 Juli 2024

Fragments - The London Nail Bombings

It's 25 years since London suffered three vicious nail bomb attacks - holdalls filled with 4-inch nails and hand-made explosives planted in Brixton market, Brick Lane and in the bar of the Admiral Duncan pub in Soho, intended to cause damage to those in the immediate vicinity and to the notion of a tolerant, diverse capital city.

The attacks are recorded in photographs shared at the time by the press - of London streets strewn with damaged buildings and injured people, an x-ray of a toddler with a nail embedded in his skull, the wedding photograph of two victims (one killed, the other severely injured) and the police mugshot of the perpetrator, a far right terrorist who hoped to start a 'racial war in this country'.

Fragments looks again at these images - some taken by Chris Taylor who happened to be on assignment in Soho's market photographing vegetables - to consider what it means for an instant to be captured and to endure in our memories and understanding of traumatic events.

Including contributions from photographer Chris Taylor; Jonathan Cash, who survived the Soho attack, Emdad Talukder, who was injured in Brick Lane and business owner Leo Epstein.

Music composed by Alan Hall, with Eleanor McDowall (chimes) and Alan Hall (trumpet)

Producer: Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Four

(Photo credit: ChrisTaylorPhotography.com)

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(97)

If We Can Walk Together

What does it take to choose peace when you have every reason not to?Aziz Abu Sarah is a Palestinian who grew up under Israeli occupation in East Jerusalem. He was first shot at when he was seven years...

21 Juni 28min

A Body of Water

Water has always been a threshold - a space between worlds where transformation unfolds. But what if the lakes, rivers, and seas we surrender ourselves to are not merely passive bodies, but keepers of...

14 Juni 28min

The House in the Hole

On a hot summer’s day in 1991, a violent crime took place that shook Consett, a town in the North East of England. When threatened with the legal demolition of a property he owned, a former steelworke...

7 Juni 28min

Voices from the Beach

The young British poet Saili Katebe was born in landlocked Zambia, and grew up with an imagined beach in his mind. Palm trees would grow in the golden sands. The sun would shine all day, and naturally...

31 Maj 28min

My Sister’s Daughter

When Laura's sister could no longer care for her daughter, Laura had a few hours to decide. If she said yes, she would become a parent again overnight, no training, no paid leave, no warning. If she s...

24 Maj 28min

Tarot and the Art of Creativity

“Each one of us, we’re a constant radio station communicating and receiving. It’s just that we’re not taught how to read, how to interpret the energies and intuitions we pick up. The tarot card is a r...

17 Maj 28min

Strong Women

World champion Strongwomen Lucy Underdown, Rebecca Roberts and Donna Moore redefine what it means to be strong. They reveal what we can all learn from these record-breaking athletes, while also chall...

3 Maj 28min

Me, Myself and the MRI

MRI machines are a miracle of modern medicine. A long white tube that can scan inside our bodies, detecting all manner of illnesses. Getting into one though can leave many people anxious. Something ca...

26 Apr 28min