Revolutionary Restauranteurs and Political Crimes by Peter Barber

Lecture note

HHS kicked off its New Year lecture programme with a fascinating talk by Peter Barber, the society’s President. Peter engrossed forty people who attended in person with another twenty or so online.

Peter Barber Giving his HHS Talk 2025

His subject started in an unusual location – the cantons of Switzerland four hundred years ago. There was already a steady stream of emigration of skilled artisans to different parts of Europe and, in the nineteenth century many, Swiss-Italian restaurants were established in London – including one in Finsbury Park.

Peter told the story of how revolutionary politics in Ticino involved these settlers and, via a possible intervention by Queen Victoria’s arty daughter Louise, a failed attempt to extradite one of the ringleaders set a precedent for how political asylum seekers are protected by British Law to this day.

Image credits

David Winskill

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