Sidney Street Siege

For real: the famous gunfight in Stepney caught on camera as it happened.

This is for real: the Sidney Street Siege - the famous London gunfight between police and army on the street and Latvian revolutionaries holed up in a building - is a seminal early case of a breaking event caught on film by news cameras as it unfolded. While Pathé’s coverage is now the most famous, Gaumont Graphic (barely two months old at the time) was also present.

Gaumont’s coverage is focused on the point at which the building (for reasons still not fully explained) caught fire and also the police’s efforts to control the crowds of onlookers.