Regent's Park bombing site

The Hyde Park and Regent's Park bombings occurred on 20 July 1982 in London. Members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated two bombs during British military ceremonies in Hyde Park and Regent's Park, both located in central London.

A second explosion occurred just over two hours later, when a bomb hidden underneath the bandstand in Regent's Park exploded during a performance of the music from Oliver! by the Royal Green Jackets band to a crowd of 120 people. Here too, the crowd was peppered by shrapnel from the iron bandstand, causing dozens of injuries amongst the audience, as well as killing seven members of the band and wounding the rest. The blast was so powerful that one of the bodies was thrown onto an iron fence 30 yards away.

The bomb was thought to have been placed under the stand weeks in advance, with a timer set to the date and time of the advertised concert. The seven men who died were Graham Barker, Robert Livingstone, John McKnight, John Heritage, George Mesure, Keith Powell and Laurence Smith.