Since the beginning of its campaign in the early 1970s , the IRA had carried out many bomb attacks in England . As well as attacking military and political targets , it also bombed infrastructure and commercial targets . The goal was to damage the economy and cause severe disruption , which would put pressure on the British government to negotiate a withdrawal from Northern Ireland . In the early 1990s , the IRA began another major bombing campaign in England . In February 1991 it launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street , official residence and office of the British Prime Minister , as John Major , then Prime Minister , was holding a Cabinet meeting . The mortars narrowly missed the building and there were no casualties . In April 1992 , the IRA detonated a powerful truck bomb in the Baltic Exchange bombing in the City of London , its main financial district . The blast killed three people and caused £ 800 million worth of damage ; more than the total damage caused by all IRA bombings before it . In November 1992 , the IRA planted a large van bomb at Canary Wharf , London 's second financial district . However , security guards immediately alerted the police and the bomb was defused . In April 1993 the IRA detonated another powerful truck bomb in the City of London . It killed one person and caused £ 500 million worth of damage
Baltic Exchange bombing
Baltic Exchange bombing
1996 Docklands bombing