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Siege of Sidney Street (1911)

The Burning House in Sidney Street where Houndsditch Assassins Perished

 

This is a black and white printed postcard published by an unknown publisher of the the Battle of Stepney, also known as the Siege of Sidney Street. The postcard has a postmark dated 9 February 1911.

 

from Wikipedia:

In December 1910 there was an attempted jewellery robbery at Houndsditch in the City of London by a gang of Latvian immigrants. The robbery resulted in the murder of three policemen, the wounding of two others, and the death of George Gardstein, the leader of the Latvian gang.

 

The police were informed that the final two members of the gang were hiding at 100 Sidney Street in Stepney. The police evacuated local residents from the environs, and on the morning of 3 January 1911 a firefight broke out. Armed with inferior weapons, the police sought assistance from the army.

 

The siege lasted for about six hours. Towards the end of the stand-off, the building caught fire; no single cause has been identified. One of the agitators in the building was shot before the fire took control. While the London Fire Brigade were damping down the ruins—in which they found the two bodies—the building collapsed, killing a fireman, Superintendent Charles Pearson.

 

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Uploaded on January 8, 2017
Taken on January 3, 1911