Continuing our series exploring the capital's great murals.
Today, we're looking at one of London's newest works of public art. Sidney Street runs through the East End between Whitechapel and Shadwell. It's most famous for the 'siege of Sidney Street' of 1911, in which the police and armed forces confronted some Latvian gang members, while Winston Churchill looked on.
The largely residential street now has its own minor attraction. This exquisite mural was painted towards the lower end of the street in the spring of 2025 by artist Frank Creber, with a ton of input from the local community. It brings together numerous stories and characters from the area. Let's dig into the details...
Details of the Sidney Street mural
We've picked out just a handful of highlights from this mural, which contains over 40 identifiable individuals, buildings and trades relating to the area.
1. Local buildings. You might recognise the Whitechapel Gallery. Less identifiable (because it was destroyed in the war) is St Mary Matfelon, the original 'white chapel', whose footprint can still be seen in Altab Ali Park.
2. The Air Ambulance rising over the old Royal London Hospital Building on Whitechapel Road.
3. William and Catherine Booth, founders of the Salvation Army. Their statues stand on Mile End Road.
4. Eva Luckes and Annie Brewster, a reforming matron and a nurse at the Royal London Hospital.
5. A self-portrait of the artist, Frank Creber.
6. A bell, representing the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. This ancient business on Whitechapel Road sadly closed in 2017.
7. The Siege of Sidney Street mentioned above. Churchill is the one in the stovepipe hat.
8. Mala Sen, local human rights activist.
9. Note the clothes hanging from the (real) drainpipe. The cloth and garment trades are mainstays of the area, and are represented in several forms on the mural.
10. Jack Cohen, founder of Tesco, who grew up in nearby Ashfield Street.
These are just a few of the highlights of the mural. A much more detailed guide can be found in an exceptionally good booklet (PDF version here) by Whitechapel Stories.
See our full series on London's best murals, including:
- The Battersea mural
- The Fitzrovia mural
- The Battle of Cable Street mural
- The Sutton Heritage Mosaic
- Dalston's Hackney Peace Carnival mural
- New Cross's Riders of the Apocalypse mural
- Brixton's Nuclear Dawn mural
- Peckham's RUN mural
