Name: Andrew Whitehead : Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney Street
Start: 2024-11-24T14:30:00+00:00
End: 2024-11-24T15:30:00+00:00
Location: London Borough of Tower Hamlets, Town Hall

Andrew Whitehead will be discussing his book "A Devilish Kind of Courage: Anarchists, Aliens and the Siege of Sidney Street".
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Andrew Whitehead will be talking about the most sensational shoot-out in London's history, at Sidney Street in Stepney in January 1911. The cast list includes Latvian anarchists, Scots Guards, the mysterious Peter the Painter and Winston Churchill.

Based on research in police archives, trial records, contemporary news reporting - including in London's Yiddish-language anarchist press - and oral history interviews. The way a series of shoot-outs blamed on anarchist exiles prompted concern about unrestricted immigration, alarm about extremism among newcomers to London and noxious antisemitism bears an echo of much more recent controversies. Local history comes to life!