Preamble
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Review
This is outside of my usual time period, so I know less about it than I probably should, as an East London resident (I live about a mile from Sidney Street and run across it routinely on my way into the City). My own London detective, Meinir Davies, walks many of the nearby streets, but twenty years prior. And its particularly interesting to learn about it now, as I work at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, and I really should know more about the 1905 Latvian revolution that is the wellspring of the revolutionaries eventually acting in East London at the start of the century! All that to say, then, that I was particularly enthusiastic to read this.
Whitehead’s book centres around the Siege of Sidney Street, which took place in January 1911 when the police moved in to arrest revolutionaries who had killed several officers in a botched burglary the previous month. The Siege itself was high drama, involving the army being called in, a fire (possibly deliberate to smoke out the revolutionaries), and a young(er) Winston Churchill appearing on the scene in his role as Home Secretary. But Whitehead uses it as a way in to explore the revolutionary “scene” in the East End over the preceding years, and in particular the Latvian (or Lettish) political refugees who settled there. Not all were Jewish, but many were.
The East End now is known for its Bangladeshi community. Whitechapel Station has a bilingual sign in English and Bangla. But it does still bear many of the signs of this (and other) previous immigrant waves, from the historic Sephardic Jewish cemetery now at the heart of Queen Mary’s campus (and the Lauriston Road, Alderney Road, and Bancroft Road Jewish burial grounds all also in E1), to the many references to the Huguenot silk weavers and the Brick Lane mosque that was once a Huguenot Protestant place of worship, and subsequently a synagogue. Whitehead’s book takes us to the East End of the fin de siècle and the years leading up to the Aliens Act 1905 that sought to control Jewish immigration from the Russian Empire.
There is lots of rich and fascinating history here, as well as many lessons relevant to our contemporary experience of imperial, religious, and geopolitical tensions. There is plenty, too, of the character and colour of the communities of the East End, in particular the Jewish and leftist community, whether “anarchist” (often a broad-brush descriptor) or otherwise. Whitehead takes an interest in the women associated with the revolutionaries and their fates after their brush with the criminal justice system, as well as in unpicking the biographies and mythologies of some of the key figures, like Peter the Painter. The research and depth of background reporting are absolutely impressive, and if I were to write historical fiction set in the East End at the very turn of the century I would certainly find it an invaluable reference.
However, I have to confess that I found reading this somewhat hard going, and I had to reserve it several times on Libby before I managed to finish it. I think, perhaps, the issue was structural. Although the Siege and the political issues it ignited are no doubt gripping in the abstract, the presentation meanders somewhat. There is an extensive precursor exploring the Tottenham Outrage, which is no doubt important background from a historical perspective but felt overlong and significantly delays the actual headline content of the book. We do not get to Houndsditch until Chapter 5, and the Siege is only reached in Chapter 6. This rather diminishes the main event, I think, but a tighter edit or a stronger structure (maybe a tripartite framing) would have helped.
See also
These lists capture other stories and characters that I thought of as I was reading this piece. I won’t explain why, to avoid spoilers, but they’re associations and not ‘if you liked this, then you’ll love…’ recommendations!
- The Worst Street in London (Fiona Rule)
- Conan Doyle for the Defence (Margalit Fox)
Take a look at my short story collection featuring Victorian “lady detective” Meinir Davies; order now!
Dominique Gracia 
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