Dark history around Tyburn, London (part 1)

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1. Start · Cato Street, London · 1820

   The Plot To Murder The Entire British Cabinet

   A hayloft of desperate radicals plotted to assassinate the whole Cabinet in a single stroke, and very nearly tried.

2. 548 m on · Tyburn, London · 1581

   The Jesuit Who Chose the Rack Over the Court

   The queen wanted him for her court, but he became a hunted priest facing rack, trial, and rope instead.

3. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1760

   The Only Peer Ever Hanged At Tyburn

   A violent nobleman was hanged before a stunned crowd who never expected to see a lord die on the public gallows.

4. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1740

   The Boy Who Woke Up on the Dissection Table

   Hanged and pronounced dead at 16, he opened his eyes as surgeons prepared to cut him open.

5. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1685

   The Last Woman Burned Alive for Politics in England

   Betrayed by the man she sheltered, she arranged her own straw to make the fire catch faster and end it quickly.

6. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1705

   The Man Who Survived His Own Hanging

   He hung at Tyburn for about fifteen minutes before the crowd cried reprieve and he was cut down alive. He lived for decades afterward.

7. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1534

   The Prophecy That Got Her Hanged

   Thomas More met her, thousands believed her visions, then she told Henry VIII he'd die if he remarried, and he didn't.

8. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1763

   The Woman Who Hanged Herself Before the Executioner Could

   She fought her executioner, gave her clothes to the crowd to deny him his fee, and threw herself from the cart on her own terms.

9. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1541

   The Man Who Died Worse Than A Queen

   Before Henry VIII ever met Catherine Howard, a secret in her past would drag her lover to a death crueler than her own.

10. same spot · Tyburn, London · 1535

    The Silent Monks Who Died First

    Before Thomas More, before anyone famous, silent Carthusian monks were the first men Henry VIII executed for defying him.

Coordinates mark the place of each story, and some are approximate. Check opening times and access before you go.