A fortnightly celebration of the folk history of the Olympic boroughs, in story and song. 

In the final week of our second Olympic Borough, Greenwich, Ruairidh Anderson tells the story of Frenchman and anarchist Martial Bourdin, who exploded in Greenwich Park one winter’s morning.

‘It was a fresh February day in 1894 when young Frenchman Martial Bourdin left his house in Fitzroy Sreet central London for a jaunt across town. Catching a tram from outside the houses of Parliament, he must have enjoyed a relatively uncrowded journey, kept company only by his head full of ideals and the package under his arm.’

All songs are free to download from Songs From The Howling Sea. Lyrics can be found here.

Previously in Greenwich

• Joseph Druce: mudlark and Maori Chief
• Anne Boleyn: Marriage and May Madness
• General James Wolfe: Battles, Brothels and Broken Hearts

Previously in Tower Hamlets

• Charlie Brown: Uncrowned King of Limehouse 
• Angela Burdett-Coutts, Queen Of The East End Poor
• Jamrach?s Menagerie, Rhinos & the Ratcliffe Highway
• Moris ?Two-guns? Cohen
• Emmanuel Swedenborg, Veruca Socks and Heavenly Secrets
• John Newton, Goebbels, Star Trek & The Slave Trade
• Eliza Marchpane, Mozart, Vol Au Vents And The Wapping Streets
• Isambard Kingdon Brunel, Ships, Bones And Bad Breath