Editing St Paul's Cathedral (section)

====Suffragette terror attacks====
{{see also|Suffragette bombing and arson campaign}}
[[File:London - City of London Police Museum, Suffragette bombs.jpg|thumb|upright|A suffragette bomb (''right'') used in an attempted bombing of St. Paul's in 1913 ([[City of London Police Museum]])]]

St Paul's was the target of two [[suffragette]] bombing attacks in 1913 and 1914 respectively. This was as part of the [[suffragette bombing and arson campaign]] from 1912 and 1914 in which suffragettes from the [[Women's Social and Political Union]], as part of their campaign for [[women's suffrage]], carried out a series of politically motivated bombings and arson nationwide.<ref name="BL">{{cite web |title=Suffragettes, violence and militancy |url=https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/suffragettes-violence-and-militancy |website=British Library |access-date=25 September 2021 |archive-date=30 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230074343/https://www.bl.uk/votes-for-women/articles/suffragettes-violence-and-militancy |url-status=live }}</ref> Churches were explicitly targeted by the suffragettes as they believed the [[Church of England]] was complicit in reinforcing opposition to women's suffrage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Simon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w2RtBQAAQBAJ |title=The Suffragette Bombers: Britain's Forgotten Terrorists |year=2014 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=978-1-78340-064-5 |language=en |page=65 |access-date=25 September 2021 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729061006/https://books.google.com/books?id=w2RtBQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> Between 1913 and 1914, 32 churches across Britain were attacked.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Bearman |first=C. J. |year=2005 |title=An Examination of Suffragette Violence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3490924 |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=120 |issue=486 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cei119 |jstor=3490924 |issn=0013-8266 |page=378 |access-date=25 September 2021 |archive-date=8 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008202337/https://www.jstor.org/stable/3490924 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The first attack on St Paul's occurred on 8 May 1913, at the start of a sermon.<ref name="Jones">{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IjSwDQAAQBAJ |title=London: Bombed Blitzed and Blown Up: The British Capital Under Attack Since 1867 |year=2016 |publisher=Frontline Books |isbn=978-1-4738-7901-0 |language=en |pages=63–64 |access-date=25 September 2021 |archive-date=29 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230729061006/https://books.google.com/books?id=IjSwDQAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> A bomb was heard ticking and discovered as people were entering the cathedral.<ref name="Jones"/> It was made out of [[potassium nitrate]].<ref name="Jones"/> Had it exploded, the bomb likely would have destroyed the historic [[bishop's throne]] and other parts of the cathedral.<ref name="Jones"/> The remains of the device, which was made partly out of a mustard tin, are now on display at the [[City of London Police Museum]].<ref name="Jones"/>

A second bombing of the cathedral by the suffragettes was attempted on 13 June 1914, but the bomb was again discovered before it could explode.<ref name="BL"/> This attempted bombing occurred two days after a bomb had exploded at [[Westminster Abbey]], which damaged the [[Coronation Chair]] and caused a mass panic for the exits.<ref name="Jones"/> Several other churches were bombed at this time, such as [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]] church in [[Trafalgar Square]] and the [[Metropolitan Tabernacle]].<ref name="BL"/>