A packed Bloomsbury Festival venue, St George the Martyr in Queen Square, recently saw the enacting of the story of a young Holborn cook condemned to hang in 1815.

Eliza Fenning, 22, was hanged after being accused of trying to poison her employers with arsenic in dumplings. No one died, and the claim that arsenic was involved was never proved. Many people believed that she had suffered a grave miscarriage of justice. Thousands joined the procession from her funeral at St George the Martyr to her burial in St George’s Gardens.

Eliza’s story has been researched by the Friends of St George’s Gardens and last week a memorial plaque was erected on the wall near the Heathcote St entrance to the gardens, attended by ‘Eliza’s mother’ and ‘William Hone’, the journalist who had pursued her case at the time. A short commemoration of the plaque and a prayer for all those suffering injustice was offered by the curate of St George the Martyr.