The Admiral Duncan
54 Old Compton Street · resilience after the bombing
The Admiral Duncan has been a pub here since at least 1839. On Friday 30 April 1999, at 6.37pm, the neo-Nazi David Copeland detonated a nail bomb inside it. Three people were killed: Andrea Dykes, 27, four months pregnant; her friend Nik Moore, 31; and John Light, 32. Around seventy more were injured, some losing limbs or sight. Copeland had already bombed Brixton and Brick Lane; his target in each case was a community.
On 4 May the London Gay Men’s Chorus carried the flowers left outside to Soho Square, making a temporary garden of remembrance; the vigil that Sunday drew hundreds. Inside the pub today a memorial chandelier bears the names of the dead and injured. The pub reopened. It is still here.