On the morning of 3 May 1926, London’s East End woke to an unfamiliar sound: silence. The bustling industrial heart of the capital with its clanking docks, braying street markets and smoke-belching factories was still. For many East Enders, it was the first time they’d heard it so quiet. At 11.59pm the night before, Britain’s Trades Union Congress (TUC) called a general strike in support of locked-out miners, and across the country two million workers dutifully complied.