At this time, to the north and south of what is now St George's Road and was then Lambeth Road, stretched Saint George's Fields. At this point, the site of the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St George, on this day Lord George Gordon M.P. (1751-93) addressed a rally as president of the Protestant Association. His concern was the passage of an act of parliament of 1778 which was an early measure in the process of Catholic Emancipation. The act had removed some of the restrictions that had been in place on the ability of Roman Catholics to inherit and purchase land. It took a further fifty years to remove the other constraints on Catholics and to bring their status to that of Protestants in the United Kingdom (except that they still may not be enthroned). There were tens of thousands at the rally and from here, over the fairly new and not very well founded Westminster Bridge, they went to present their petition to parliament for the repeal of the act. Then things got out of hand. There were riots for some five days with, reportedly, some 285 deaths among the rioters when the soldiery were called out and 21 more from executions afterwards.

O/S Co-ords:3143.7934
Source(s):

Chambers Biographical Dictionary

The Map of London from 1746 to the Present Day