1996 IRA Bombing

The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army on 15 June 1996. The IRA detonated a 1,500-kilogram lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War.
The IRA sent telephoned warnings about 90 minutes before the bomb detonated. At least 75,000 people were evacuated from the region, but the bomb squad were unable to defuse the bomb in time. More than 200 people were injured, but there were no fatalities despite the strength of the bomb, which has been largely credited to the rapid response of emergency services in evacuating the city centre.

This postbox remained standing almost undamaged when the area was devastated by a bomb. The box was removed during the rebuilding of the city centre and was returned to its original site on November 22nd 1999 There is a brass plaque affixed to the standard Victorian Post Office pillar box recording its survival of the explosion.Read more