Qualla: 1983 Harrods Bombing https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: 1983 Harrods Bombing https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing 1983 Harrods Bombing: Introduction https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. It was the last Saturday of Christmas shopping in 1983, the kind of London afternoon when Knightsbridge fills up with parents carrying parcels and children pressed against the windows of Harrods. At 12.44 pm, a man with an Irish accent called the Samaritans. He said a car bomb had been left outside the department store. The warning gave thirty-seven minutes. The car — a blue 1972 Austin 1300 GT — was parked on Hans Crescent, against the side entrance. The store was not evacuated. At 1.21 pm, the bomb detonated.

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full 1983 Harrods Bombing: The People on the Street https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. Three Metropolitan Police officers died that afternoon. Sergeant Noel Lane was 28. Constable Jane Arbuthnot was 22. Inspector Stephen Dodd was 34; he survived the blast itself but died of his injuries in hospital on Christmas Eve. Constable Jon Gordon lived, but lost both legs an...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-the-people-on-the-street.mp3 0:06 2 full 1983 Harrods Bombing: The 'Economic War' https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Provisional IRA had been bombing commercial targets in London and elsewhere in England since 1973, in a strategy its leadership called an "economic war." The reasoning was that damage to British commerce, disruption to British daily life, and the diplomatic embarrassment of a...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-the-economic-war.mp3 0:06 3 full 1983 Harrods Bombing: Who Authorised the Bomb https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. Within days, the IRA Army Council issued a statement saying that the Harrods car bomb had not been authorised, and expressing regret for the civilian deaths. It was an unusual admission. The political cost was real: the deaths of two young constables and a young woman officer at ...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-who-authorised-the-bomb.mp3 0:06 4 full 1983 Harrods Bombing: The Store That Reopened https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. Harrods reopened three days later. The chairman, Aleck Craddock, declared that the store would not be "defeated by acts of terrorism." It was a small statement made into a large one by Christmas, by London, by the photographs of the shattered fronts of the cars still being cleare...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-the-store-that-reopened.mp3 0:06 5 full 1983 Harrods Bombing: A Memorial and a Lecture https://qualla.com/1983-harrods-bombing/ Photo credit Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0. There is a memorial at the site of the blast. Every year, the University of Oxford awards the Philip Geddes Memorial Prizes to aspiring journalists, and a leading journalist delivers the Philip Geddes Memorial Lecture on the future of journalism — a small, deliberate act of keepi...

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]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/u/1983-harrods-bombing-wp/gcpu-1983-harrods-bombing-a-memorial-and-a-lecture.mp3 0:06 6 full