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  • The Tottenham Outrage

    The centenary of the events known as the Tottenham Outrage is approaching.

    On 23 January, 1909, two Bolshevik anarchists failed in their attempt at armed robbery at a factory in Tottenham. They fled across the marshes, persued by police and a long chase through the streets of north east London ensued. During the chase a policeman and a ten year old boy were shot dead and many other people were injured. The armed robbers hijacked a tram at one point. They crossed the Walthamstow/Chingford border on foot and ran through a passage that ran under the Liverpool St - Chingofrd railway. At this point they were met by a high brick wall. One of the anarchists shot himself dead at this spot but the other one scaled the wall and continued on foot for another half mile or so. He eventually ran into a cottage close to the Royal Oak pub in Hale End Road where he shot himself dead, realising he was surrounded and could not escape.

    As this event formed part of the history of the area where I grew up, it has always been of interest to me. However, it has significant importance in our national history as it is often said that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was planned in the anarchist clubs of the east end of London and of course such an event is closely related to other outrages such as the siege of Sydney Street.

    Anyone interested in discussing these events?

  • #2
    Last time I was back in the old stamping ground,The Rubber Factory had become a Nightclub!....I always wondered at the Custer-like planning of robbing somewhere literally opposite the Police Station........I actually tried walking the route of the whole affair in about 1980,don't know if it's still practical today.
    Steve

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    • #3
      Hi Steve,

      Most of the changes in the route ould have happened at the Tottenham end of the route. Of course the roads are much busier now too!

      At the Walthamstow/Chingford end nothing much has changed (except around the Crooked Billet). The cottage has gone now but it was there when I was a kid.

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      • #4
        The best account of the "Outrage" was in Donald Rumbelow's book THE HOUNDSDITCH MURDERS (i.e. THE SIEGE OF SIDNEY STREET), where it is the lead chapter of the book. I recall that the second anarchist robber/killer did die from the self-inflicted bullet wound, but that he actually lived for at least a week in a hospital after the police found him.

        Jeff

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        • #5
          Yes, Mayerling, you are probably right about the second gunman.

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          • #6
            Always have this mental vision of the Tram section of the chase as being decidedly Keystone-Coppish......
            Steve

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            • #7
              Isn't this where Winston Churchill hisself turned up at the scene complete with topper and tails?

              Also, if I remember aright, the naughties had better weapons (Mausers, etc) than the police or the army who were sent in to rout them out, and wasn't a field-gun eventually deployed?

              Cheers,

              Graham
              We are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver Blaze

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              • #8
                Yes Graham, Churchill appeared watching the Home Guards and the artillery men blast the house on Sidney Street (this was the so-called "siege"), but the Tottenham Outrage was about a year earlier.

                Jeff

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Mayerling View Post
                  Yes Graham, Churchill appeared watching the Home Guards and the artillery men blast the house on Sidney Street (this was the so-called "siege"), but the Tottenham Outrage was about a year earlier.

                  Jeff

                  Jeff,

                  Whoops! Me history is letting me down. Right you are!

                  Cheers,

                  Graham

                  PS: Jeff, way back when, you were researching the Bravo Case with, I think, a view to a book. Did anything ever come of this? Sorry to go off-thread a little.
                  We are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver Blaze

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    There was a young lady of Tottenham,
                    Who'd no manners, or else had fogotten 'em.
                    At tea at the vicar's
                    She took down her knickers
                    Because, she said, she felt 'ot in 'em.

                    Ahem.

                    Graham
                    We are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture and hypothesis. - Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure Of Silver Blaze

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Mayerling View Post
                      Yes Graham, Churchill appeared watching the Home Guards and the artillery men blast the house on Sidney Street (this was the so-called "siege"), but the Tottenham Outrage was about a year earlier.

                      Jeff
                      Or even the Scots Guards....The artillery were called,but the house caught fire before they had a chance to be used.
                      Steve

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                      • #12
                        There was this writer with class
                        Who lost his spirit, alas
                        He confused Balham with Balaam.
                        And despite being solemn
                        He ended up looking an ass!

                        Hi Graham and Steve,

                        Believe it or not I will probably return to that Bravo article (not full length study, alas) one of these days. Since 2007 when I started trying out this idea for a look at the case, I have had a decline in my health (fortunately it has returned mostly to normal), and the loss of my friend Jonathan Goodman, who was a mentor and booster. Except for movie reviews on imdb and some work on the Wikipedia I have only written two pieces, one Jonathan's obituary for the Ripperologist and another friend's obituary for a small newsletter in the last two years. Oddly enough I have other ideas (besides Bravo) but a sort of mental lethergy is still entrapping me. That's the best way for me to describe it.

                        The thing to recall about Churchill and Sidney Street is that he was the Home Secretary for about one year (1910 - 1911) and it turned out to be a very colorfully brief sojourn in that post. Churchill was the Home Secretary at the time of the trials of John Alexander Dickman, Hawley Harvey Crippen, and Steinie Morrison, and in time for the Sidney Street Siege.

                        Naturally he was quite interested in that fight between the police and the anarchist at Sidney Street, and was responsible for calling out the artillery. Even if it was not used it was (in his view) necessary. Don't forget, initially there had been the murder of three policeman, and shooting of two others, by the anarchists while committing a robbery in Houndsditch. The anarchists (according to Donald Rumbelow) were unable to seperate their knowledge of Tsarist police in Russia (where they came from - and where the proceeds of their robberies went for political activities) with those of Britain. The Russian ones were brutal, so they felt the British would be equally brutal. And they
                        proceeded to shoot down British bobbies as though they were like the Cossacks in the "Odessa Steps" sequence of POTEMKIN. This point of view meant they had to be treated differently, and I am certain Churchill would have ordered the artillery to fire had the house not already caught fire from early fighting.

                        By the way, Mr. Rumbelow found that one of the anarchists later returned to Russia after the Revolution and ended as head of the Secret Police. It did not do him much good in the long run - he was executed at a later date by Stalin.

                        Jeff

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                        • #13
                          Little bit in one of the papers a month or so ago.......The local council in the area wanted to name something,(road...flats?),after one of the Anarchists as an important part of local history....complaints from descendents of murdered Policemen.....consensus was it would be like having Bin Laden Avenue....
                          Steve

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                          • #14
                            Regarding the Sydney Street siege. Winston, who was viewing proceedings from the corner of the street, was targetted by the anarchists and a bullet actually passed through his hat. A few inches lower and how different the map of the world might now look!

                            Gary

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                            • #15
                              The 10 year old boy killed in the Tottenham Outrage was my wife's great uncle. I walked the route a couple of years ago and took a few photos.
                              There are a couple of decent little booklets about the Outrage, although they might be hard to find: -
                              OUTRAGE! AN EDWARDIAN TRAGEDY by J D Harris
                              SECRETS OF THE TOTTENHAM OUTRAGE by Patricie Collier

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