Did you know Winston Churchill was present at the first siege ever recorded on film in Britain?

Coming hot on the trail of the first part of our article on Winston Churchill (Churchill – Part I) is a small story from his two years as Home Secretary. Churchill had always been a thrill seeker, and he did not hesitate to seize the chance to personally witness a dangerous police siege in London. The Siege of Sidney Street involved a shootout several hours long, multiple death, the first film recording of a siege in Britain… and Churchill ordering firefighters to let a house burn down.

In the late 19th century, East London housed a high number of Eastern European Jews who fled from persecution in the Russian Empire. Many of these people held a mix of communist, socialist and anarchist ideas, and formed violent criminal gangs. 

Several members of one particular gang of Latvian émigrés tried to rob a jeweler’s shop by breaking in through the back yard in December 1910. The attempt went awry when a neighbor heard the noises and told a police constable, who fetched reinforcements. The ensuing shootout resulting in two police sergeants and one constable dying, two others suffering wounds they never fully recovered from, and a key member of the gang suffering a gunshot wound that later killed him at a hideout. 

The ensuing two-week manhunt ended on January 3, 1911, after two gang members who were probably part of the robbery were found hiding at 100 Sidney Street. 200 policemen surrounded the building in the middle of the night and evacuated nearby houses and the ground floor of number 100. An assault was deemed impossible, as the police was only allowed to return fire after being shot at, and approaching the gangsters would have involved going up a narrow winding staircase that was a perfect killing zone. A firefight between the two criminals and the police on the street ensued at 7:30. The old pistols, shotguns and small-caliber rifles of the police were outclassed by the criminals’ automatic weapons, so a detachment of better-equipped soldiers was called in – the first time the military assisted a police siege in British history.

As Home Secretary, Churchill had to be consulted on the deployment of the military. He arrived on the scene at 10:50 am to witness things first-hand. He and his biographers later claimed he did not interfere with the operational decision-making, but a police report suggests otherwise. 

The siege stretched on for hours. Several alternatives were discussed: the deployment of heavier artillery, a simultaneous assault from multiple directions, and the use of a large metal shield. None of these were implemented, however, as a fire started inside the house by an unknown source and smoke started to rise from the building’s chimneys and second-floor windows at 12:50. One of the gangsters stuck out his head through a window and was shot.

Firefighters arrived on the scene, but Churchill forbade them to extinguish the flame, telling them to only prevent the fire from spreading to other houses. 

Shooting from inside the house stopped at 2:30. Part of the roof collapsed, and the firefighters were finally allowed to do their jobs. Both criminals were found dead. One firefighter suffered a fractured spine when a wall collapsed on him, the injury killing him six months later. Churchill drew heavy criticism for risking his life unnecessarily and interfering with the police operation.