In London in 1984 two very different cities came into conflict, one rooted in radical politics and the other shaped by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government. This was a city poised between two eras and identities, remoulded in conflicting ways by social democracy and neoliberalism. Using a wide array of sources, many of which have never been used before, London, 1984 explores the radical history of the capital in this tumultuous era, from a major anti-apartheid march in central London to an alternative childcare centre in Dalston, from a protest staged on the Thames against Docklands development to tensions on housing estates in the East End and Tottenham around racial violence and policing, from a raid on a gay bookshop in Bloomsbury to the Greater London Council''s attempt to build a challenge to Thatcherism from County Hall, Lambeth, and from controversial and well-known historical actors, such as Ken Livingstone and Margaret Thatcher, to the compelling stories of numero
