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A political history of Britain in the places where it happened: parliament and palace, courts and counting houses, and the streets where people pushed back.
The common where 1848 was supposed to become a British revolution.
Protest & dissentFree to enter
The Chartists wanted a vote for every man, a secret ballot, equal constituencies and pay for MPs so that someone without private means could sit in Parliament. The demands were thought dangerous; they are now simply how the country works. On 10 April 1848, with revolutions running across Europe, they gathered on Kennington Common to carry a petition to Westminster. The government swore in tens of thousands of special constables, put troops at the bridges and waited for an insurrection. The crowd handed in the petition and went home, Parliament ridiculed the signatures, and most of the demands were law within seventy years. The common was enclosed as a park soon afterwards, which was its own way of settling the ground.
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.