The death of three policemen in a botched armed robbery and the resulting siege in London's East End which was photographed by the Daily Mirror helped spark the emergence of photojournalism.





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BYSTEVE MYALL
14:43, 10 MAR 2017
UPDATED21:05, 10 MAR 2017
NEWS
The scene from the Sidney Street Siege with Scots Guards in fifle firing positions lying on the cobbles while Churchill and the police stand at the corner of the street out of the way of stray bullets (Photo: mirrorpix)





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Imagine a time before television when smart phones didn't exist and the only pictures of news events were grainy engraved copies of photographs in newspapers.

Daily papers were dull blocks of text which were heavy on detail and light on drama.

Then in 1904 the Daily Mirror exploited revolutionary new system which allowed the pictures to be reproduced in fine detail on its pages.

But it was a time consuming process with pictures shot on glass plate cameras which were uncomfortable to use.

What was needed was a story to capture the public and take them right into the action of a news event, and that happened in 1911 with the death of three policemen in a botched armed robbery and the resulting siege in London's East End.

Scots Guards train their weapons on the hideout (Photo: Daily Mirror)

It was the first time a big story was extensively covered by British photographers.

The Siege of Sidney Street of January 1911, also known as the Battle of Stepney was a gunfight between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries.

The siege marked the first time the police had requested military assistance in London to deal with an armed stand-off.

Home Secretary Winston Churchill was photographed at the scene and maligned for exposing himself to danger, for letting the burglars burn and for interfering with the police. (Photo: mirrorpix)

It was also the first siege in Britain to be caught on camera and the Daily Mirror put the striking pictures on it's front page - leaving the nation gripped.

In one striking front page two Scots guards lie on their stomachs training their rifles on a house window in a deserted street putting the reader behind the guards and in the heart of the violence.

The Daily Mirror kept readers updated with pictures during the manhunt for the men (Photo: Mirrorpix)Jav Teacher

Other pictures show crowds straining against a police cordon to get a look at the dramatic siege unfolding and a top hat wearing 36-year-old Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, on the scene peering around a corner to see what was unfolding.

The images - more than a 100 years old - are as remarkable for how close the photographers were able to get bearing in mind the dangerous situiation.

The drama unfolded in the East End of London, an area which at the time was home to thousands of Jewish immigrants who had fled persecution in Russia.

Newspaper pages filled with photographs covering the shooting (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Among the community were extreme left wing revolutionaries who struggled to adapt to life in less oppressive London and did not believe in private property.

In 1910 a group of Latvians led by a violent suspected anarchist George Gardstein decided to rob a jewellery shop at 119 Houndsditch.

HS Harris jewellery shop which the revolutionaries had wanted to rob (Photo: mirrorpix)

The plan was to break through the back wall of the shop and crack the safe - believed to hold £30,000 of jewels - using diamond tipped drills.

On the night of December 16 working from a small yard in a property the gang had rented at 11 Exchange Buildings the robbers began to break down the wall.

Hero policemen of Sydney Street honoured, 100 years on

A neighbour returning home heard the noises the gang were making and alert a passing policeman who investigated and knocked on the door of the house the gang were using.

Suspicious of the man who answered the door the policeman asked him "is the missus in?" so as not alert the gang and when he was told she was out said he would return later and went for reinforcements.

Police hold back crowds near the scene of the shooting (Photo: Daily Mirror)

When he reached Houndsditch he saw to policemen from adjoining beats Walter Choate and Ernest Woodhams who watched the property while he went to a nearby police station to report it.

By 11.30pm seven uniformed and two plain clothes policemen had gathered and Sergeant Robert Bentley unaware the gang had been disturbed once already knocked again on the door again.

Gang leader Gardstein opened the door and was asked to fetch someone who spoke English and was followed into the hallway by three policemen - Sgt Bentley and Pc Woodhams and Pc Thomas Bryant.

The Daily Mirror front page the day after the siege used a large picture of the dramatic scene (Photo: Mirrorpix)

As Bentley moved forward, the back door opened and one of the gang rushed out, firing from a pistol as he did so, he was joined by a man on the stairs also firing.

Bentley was shot in the shoulder and the neck—the second round severing his spine.

Bryant was shot in the arm and chest and Woodhams had his leg broken by a bullet, both collapsed.

As the gang escaped other police intervened and Sgt Charles Tucker from Bishopsgate police station was hit twice, once in the hip and once in the heart: he died instantly.

Map of the Houndsditch and Stepney area where the Sidney Street Siege and Houndsditch Jewellery Robbery took place 1911 (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Choate grabbed Gardstein and wrestled for his gun, but the Russian managed to shoot him in the leg and other members of the gang ran to Gardstein's assistance, shooting Choate twelve times in the process but also wounding Gardstein.

The injured gang leader was taken to the lodgings of a gang member nicknamed "Peter the Painter" in subsequent reports.

Meanwhile Pc Tucker's was ferried to hospital by taxi along with Choate who was operated on but died while Bentley was taken to another hospital where half conscious was able to speak with his pregnant wife but he died the following evening.

Sergeant Tucker one of the three policemen killed during the Houndsditch Jewellery robbery in the City of London . (Photo: Daily Mirror)

The death of the three officers remains one of the largest multiple murders of police officers in Britain and shocked the country.

On 22 December a public memorial service took place for Tucker, Bentley and Choate at St Paul's Cathedral with an estimated ten thousand people waited in St Paul's environs.

After the service, when the coffins were being transported on an eight-mile journey to cemeteries, it was estimated that 750,000 people lined the route, many throwing flowers onto the hearses as they passed

A major search was launched for the gang and several were arrested.

The reward poster featuring George Gardstein; the photograph was taken post-mortem and issued by the police in their search for information (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Gardstein had been shot in the chest and when his condition worsened the gang sent for doctor but refused to let him go to hospital.

He died the next morning and it was when the doctor reported his death to the coroner the police were alerted and took the unusual step of using a picture of him taken post mortem to create a poster appeal for help.

That led to a member of public tipping off police that two gang members Fritz Svaars and Josef Sokoloffwere holed up in a second floor room at 100 Sidney Street.

A rooftop view of Sidney Street taken to show where the siege unfolded (Photo: Daily Mirror)

At midnight on January 3 200 police officers surrounded the house and neighbours were roused and evacuated leaving the house empty except for the two men.

The design of the house included a tight staircase which made it dangerous for the police to raid the property.

A page from the Daily Mirror with news of the siege (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Instead an officer first knocked on the door and when there was no answer threw gravel at the window.

At that Svaars and Sokoloff appeared at the window and opened fire at the police shooting a sergeant in the chest who was evacuated across the roof tops.

(Photo: Daily Mirror)

It was soon apparent the men had superior guns to the police and so they called the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill for permission bring in a detachment of Scots Guards, who were stationed at the Tower of London.

A detachment of 21 volunteer marksmen arrived and the two sides exchanged fire watched at one stage by Churchill who had arrived to the displeasure of the gathering crowd.

Colour Sergeant Chick of the Scots Guard who was shot in the leg during the Sidney Street Siege, seen here, at home with his wife and child. (Photo: Daily Mirror)

His arrival was unpopular and he later remarked he heard the crowd asking "Oo let 'em in?", in reference to the Government's immigration policy.

By 12.50pm the shooting had peaked and smoke was seen coming from the chimneys and windows and just after 1.30pm Sokoloff put his head out of the window and was shot in the head.

The house were the robbers holed up caught fire (Photo: Daily Mirror)

By 2.30pm the shooting had stopped and as the roof gave way it was apparent the men were dead, their bodies were later recovered by fire fighters although in a tragic late twist a wall collapsed on five firemen one of whom died later of his injuries.

Throughout the siege news photographers from the Daily Mirror were right in the action alongside the police and military.

Investigators pick through the rumble after the siege (Photo: Mirrorpix)

The photographers used runners to take their glass photographic plates back to the office and worked in relays taking over from each other to capture the unfolding drama.

The next day the paper, which had carried the story of the botched robbery, police memorial and manhunt to it's gripped readership put the story of the shootout on the front page.

Police holding back large crowds of people from 100 Sidney Street, Stepney following a siege and gun battle between members of the Gardstein gang (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Using pictures so big in a newspaper was revolutionary and the public bought the paper in their millions.

The story was making of press photography and the story was told in Pathe newsreels and fictionalised by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Sergeant Bentley one of the three policemen killed during the Houndsditch Jewellery robbery in the City of London (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Today there are plaques in the East End honouring the dead police officers and firefighters and tower blocks named after 'Peter the Painter' one of the gang.

How three dead policemen and a bloody shoot-out in London's East End 100 years ago kick-started photojournalism


The death of three policemen in a botched armed robbery and the resulting siege in London's East End which was photographed by the Daily Mirror helped spark the emergence of photojournalism.





15SHARES

COMMENTS

BYSTEVE MYALL
14:43, 10 MAR 2017
UPDATED21:05, 10 MAR 2017
NEWS
The scene from the Sidney Street Siege with Scots Guards in fifle firing positions lying on the cobbles while Churchill and the police stand at the corner of the street out of the way of stray bullets (Photo: mirrorpix)





15SHARES


Get Daily updates directly to your inbox
+ Subscribe

Imagine a time before television when smart phones didn't exist and the only pictures of news events were grainy engraved copies of photographs in newspapers.

Daily papers were dull blocks of text which were heavy on detail and light on drama.

Then in 1904 the Daily Mirror exploited revolutionary new system which allowed the pictures to be reproduced in fine detail on its pages.

But it was a time consuming process with pictures shot on glass plate cameras which were uncomfortable to use.

What was needed was a story to capture the public and take them right into the action of a news event, and that happened in 1911 with the death of three policemen in a botched armed robbery and the resulting siege in London's East End.

Scots Guards train their weapons on the hideout (Photo: Daily Mirror)

It was the first time a big story was extensively covered by British photographers.

The Siege of Sidney Street of January 1911, also known as the Battle of Stepney was a gunfight between a combined police and army force and two Latvian revolutionaries.

The siege marked the first time the police had requested military assistance in London to deal with an armed stand-off.

Home Secretary Winston Churchill was photographed at the scene and maligned for exposing himself to danger, for letting the burglars burn and for interfering with the police. (Photo: mirrorpix)

It was also the first siege in Britain to be caught on camera and the Daily Mirror put the striking pictures on it's front page - leaving the nation gripped.

In one striking front page two Scots guards lie on their stomachs training their rifles on a house window in a deserted street putting the reader behind the guards and in the heart of the violence.

The Daily Mirror kept readers updated with pictures during the manhunt for the men (Photo: Mirrorpix)Jav Teacher

Other pictures show crowds straining against a police cordon to get a look at the dramatic siege unfolding and a top hat wearing 36-year-old Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary, on the scene peering around a corner to see what was unfolding.

The images - more than a 100 years old - are as remarkable for how close the photographers were able to get bearing in mind the dangerous situiation.

The drama unfolded in the East End of London, an area which at the time was home to thousands of Jewish immigrants who had fled persecution in Russia.

Newspaper pages filled with photographs covering the shooting (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Among the community were extreme left wing revolutionaries who struggled to adapt to life in less oppressive London and did not believe in private property.

In 1910 a group of Latvians led by a violent suspected anarchist George Gardstein decided to rob a jewellery shop at 119 Houndsditch.

HS Harris jewellery shop which the revolutionaries had wanted to rob (Photo: mirrorpix)

The plan was to break through the back wall of the shop and crack the safe - believed to hold £30,000 of jewels - using diamond tipped drills.

On the night of December 16 working from a small yard in a property the gang had rented at 11 Exchange Buildings the robbers began to break down the wall.

Hero policemen of Sydney Street honoured, 100 years on

A neighbour returning home heard the noises the gang were making and alert a passing policeman who investigated and knocked on the door of the house the gang were using.

Suspicious of the man who answered the door the policeman asked him "is the missus in?" so as not alert the gang and when he was told she was out said he would return later and went for reinforcements.

Police hold back crowds near the scene of the shooting (Photo: Daily Mirror)

When he reached Houndsditch he saw to policemen from adjoining beats Walter Choate and Ernest Woodhams who watched the property while he went to a nearby police station to report it.

By 11.30pm seven uniformed and two plain clothes policemen had gathered and Sergeant Robert Bentley unaware the gang had been disturbed once already knocked again on the door again.

Gang leader Gardstein opened the door and was asked to fetch someone who spoke English and was followed into the hallway by three policemen - Sgt Bentley and Pc Woodhams and Pc Thomas Bryant.

The Daily Mirror front page the day after the siege used a large picture of the dramatic scene (Photo: Mirrorpix)

As Bentley moved forward, the back door opened and one of the gang rushed out, firing from a pistol as he did so, he was joined by a man on the stairs also firing.

Bentley was shot in the shoulder and the neck—the second round severing his spine.

Bryant was shot in the arm and chest and Woodhams had his leg broken by a bullet, both collapsed.

As the gang escaped other police intervened and Sgt Charles Tucker from Bishopsgate police station was hit twice, once in the hip and once in the heart: he died instantly.

Map of the Houndsditch and Stepney area where the Sidney Street Siege and Houndsditch Jewellery Robbery took place 1911 (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Choate grabbed Gardstein and wrestled for his gun, but the Russian managed to shoot him in the leg and other members of the gang ran to Gardstein's assistance, shooting Choate twelve times in the process but also wounding Gardstein.

The injured gang leader was taken to the lodgings of a gang member nicknamed "Peter the Painter" in subsequent reports.

Meanwhile Pc Tucker's was ferried to hospital by taxi along with Choate who was operated on but died while Bentley was taken to another hospital where half conscious was able to speak with his pregnant wife but he died the following evening.

Sergeant Tucker one of the three policemen killed during the Houndsditch Jewellery robbery in the City of London . (Photo: Daily Mirror)

The death of the three officers remains one of the largest multiple murders of police officers in Britain and shocked the country.

On 22 December a public memorial service took place for Tucker, Bentley and Choate at St Paul's Cathedral with an estimated ten thousand people waited in St Paul's environs.

After the service, when the coffins were being transported on an eight-mile journey to cemeteries, it was estimated that 750,000 people lined the route, many throwing flowers onto the hearses as they passed

A major search was launched for the gang and several were arrested.

The reward poster featuring George Gardstein; the photograph was taken post-mortem and issued by the police in their search for information (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Gardstein had been shot in the chest and when his condition worsened the gang sent for doctor but refused to let him go to hospital.

He died the next morning and it was when the doctor reported his death to the coroner the police were alerted and took the unusual step of using a picture of him taken post mortem to create a poster appeal for help.

That led to a member of public tipping off police that two gang members Fritz Svaars and Josef Sokoloffwere holed up in a second floor room at 100 Sidney Street.

A rooftop view of Sidney Street taken to show where the siege unfolded (Photo: Daily Mirror)

At midnight on January 3 200 police officers surrounded the house and neighbours were roused and evacuated leaving the house empty except for the two men.

The design of the house included a tight staircase which made it dangerous for the police to raid the property.

A page from the Daily Mirror with news of the siege (Photo: Mirrorpix)

Instead an officer first knocked on the door and when there was no answer threw gravel at the window.

At that Svaars and Sokoloff appeared at the window and opened fire at the police shooting a sergeant in the chest who was evacuated across the roof tops.

(Photo: Daily Mirror)

It was soon apparent the men had superior guns to the police and so they called the then Home Secretary Winston Churchill for permission bring in a detachment of Scots Guards, who were stationed at the Tower of London.

A detachment of 21 volunteer marksmen arrived and the two sides exchanged fire watched at one stage by Churchill who had arrived to the displeasure of the gathering crowd.

Colour Sergeant Chick of the Scots Guard who was shot in the leg during the Sidney Street Siege, seen here, at home with his wife and child. (Photo: Daily Mirror)

His arrival was unpopular and he later remarked he heard the crowd asking "Oo let 'em in?", in reference to the Government's immigration policy.

By 12.50pm the shooting had peaked and smoke was seen coming from the chimneys and windows and just after 1.30pm Sokoloff put his head out of the window and was shot in the head.

The house were the robbers holed up caught fire (Photo: Daily Mirror)

By 2.30pm the shooting had stopped and as the roof gave way it was apparent the men were dead, their bodies were later recovered by fire fighters although in a tragic late twist a wall collapsed on five firemen one of whom died later of his injuries.

Throughout the siege news photographers from the Daily Mirror were right in the action alongside the police and military.

Investigators pick through the rumble after the siege (Photo: Mirrorpix)

The photographers used runners to take their glass photographic plates back to the office and worked in relays taking over from each other to capture the unfolding drama.

The next day the paper, which had carried the story of the botched robbery, police memorial and manhunt to it's gripped readership put the story of the shootout on the front page.

Police holding back large crowds of people from 100 Sidney Street, Stepney following a siege and gun battle between members of the Gardstein gang (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Using pictures so big in a newspaper was revolutionary and the public bought the paper in their millions.

The story was making of press photography and the story was told in Pathe newsreels and fictionalised by Alfred Hitchcock in the 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Sergeant Bentley one of the three policemen killed during the Houndsditch Jewellery robbery in the City of London (Photo: Daily Mirror)

Today there are plaques in the East End honouring the dead police officers and firefighters and tower blocks named after 'Peter the Painter' one of the gang.

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