A Devilish Kind of Courage

On 3 January 1911, in the heart of London's mainly Jewish East End, police discovered Latvian revolutionaries wanted for the murder of three officers. A six-hour gunfight ensued, with a fire consuming the besieged building. Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, arrived at the scene and ordered the blaze not to be extinguished. Afterwards two charred bodies were found; the elusive Peter the Painter, believed to have been the ringleader, remained at large. This gripping episode, known as the 'Siege of Sidney Street', was a nationwide sensation and ignited fierce debates on immigration to Britain, political extremism and law enforcement. This book unravels the full story of the siege, the Latvian emigres and their ties to the vibrant anarchist movement in London's East End.

The Tottenham Outrage, the Houndsditch Murders and the Siege of Sidney Street rank among the most extraordinary events in modern London history. In this new and wonderfully readable account, Andrew Whitehead combines unrivalled knowledge with meticulous scholarship to reveal for the first time the full story behind these spectacular but mysterious crimes. Jerry White, author of London in the Twentieth Century: A City and Its People
A fascinating, forgotten story told in rich, evocative detail. A Devilish Kind of Courage provides a vivid portrayal of the East End of London in the early years of the twentieth century, and of the tumultuous rise and fall of the anarchist movement in Britain. Sam Miller, author of Migrants: The Story of Us All

Andrew Whitehead has written a vivid and authoritative account of a stand-out event in the always turbulent history of London's East End. A Devilish Kind of Courage is an accomplished piece of historical research and a story wonderfully well told – combing police archives, trial records, Yiddish language anarchist papers and even the memoirs of a notorious East End criminal. It places the account of gun-toting desperadoes, émigrés from the Tsarist Russian Empire against the background of an intense debate about the large numbers of near destitute immigrants from Eastern Europe – a controversy that still resonates to this day. The book also brings to the fore the unsettling story of three women caught up in the Siege of Sidney Street and subsequent trial.

Rachel Lichtenstein, co-director of the Centre for Place Writing, Manchester Metropolitan University, and author of On Brick Lane
A Devilish Kind of Courage is a compelling history of the Siege of Sidney Street that deftly examines the event’s international dimensions and vividly brings to life the underground communities it outlawed. Andrew Whitehead’s argument that liberalism ultimately prevailed over media-fuelled public anxiety is a judicious and salutary reminder of the dangers of knee-jerk government legislation. Ruth Kinna, Professor of Political Theory, Loughborough University, and author of The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

Andrew Whitehead is a historian and journalist, an honorary professor at the University of Nottingham, and was an editor of History Workshop Journal. During a long career with the BBC he was a radio presenter, a foreign correspondent and latterly the Editor of BBC World Service News. His publications include Curious Crouch End (2021).

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