My review of the Museum of London Dockland’s exhibition on the Siege of Sidney Street can be read in the New Statesman.
For once, I have little more to add. It’s an excellent exhibition and I recommend heading to Docklands before it ends in April. For more on the siege, you can see Pathe newsreel footage here or read Caroline’s article here.
Or you can watch a clip from the 1960 movie loosely based on the events.
The Great Wen 
My grandfather’s family lived in the buildings facing Sidney Street, where the army had set up their headquarters. There’s a family story that my great-aunt, who would have been about 16 at the time, browbeat a succession of increasingly-senior soldiers — ending up with the most senior having to go to Churchill himself — until a solider was assigned to escort her to the bakery so she could buy bread for her younger brothers and sisters, with the bullets flying overhead.