The day before the IRA carried out it's first pub bombing in England, bombing the White Lion pub injuring around 10 people, and had carried out a number of other bombings in London, on the 18 December 1973 a car bomb exploded at Westminster injuring between 50 - 60 people.

The bomb at the North Star in South Hampstead exploded almost exactly as another bomb exploded in South Hampstead inside the Swiss Cottage Tavern.  Six people were seriously injured in the North Star bomb, needing to be hospitalised, with around a dozen having less serious injuries. Around 20- 25 people were injured in the Swiss Cottage Tavern, none seriously. Two days later, on Boxing Day, in several attacks around London, the Stage Door pub was bombed, injuring one person.

This was the start of two year camaign by the IRA's England department of targeting pubs in the country. As I just mentioned, four were bombed in 1973, leading to around 35 - 40 injuries. In 1974, three pubs in the West Midlands were bombed, two of which were the Birmingham pub bombings; in the south & around London the IRA Balcombe St Four bombed the two Guildord pubs; two pubs in London, one in Woolwich & one in Belgravia, were bombed; and on the same day as they bombed Harrods they also planted a bomb the King's Arms public house in Warminster but it was defused. In 1975 the ASU bombed two more pubs, one in Caterham which injured 33 people, and one in Kent, which injured 2 more. In total, 28 people were killed from these bombings: 6 soldiers, 1 police officer and 21 civilians; nearly all of the civilian deaths, except for 2, came from the Birmingham bombings; in total just over 300 people were injured from the bombings. In 1992, a one-off pub bombing was carried out by the IRA at the Sussex Arms, which killed one person and injured four others.

IRA London active service unit bomb the North Star public house, in Hampstead, London, 24 December 1973