The Blind Beggar public house, 337 Whitechapel Road
Contributed by Survey of London on Jan. 26, 2018
The name of this pub is a reference to the Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, in
which parish it stands. A Tudor ballad about Henry de Montfort, who died in
the Battle of Evesham in 1265, imagined that he survived blinded to be rescued
by a woman from Bethnal Green, where he ended his days begging. The parish
once hosted other pubs of the same name. This establishment’s origins seem to
be late seventeenth century, possibly to do with a long manorial lease of
1673. The public house was held by John Bird in 1730 and then by Charles
Bartholomew, with Richard Ivory resident by 1786 and up to 1807 when it
appears to have been rebuilt by James Green, surveyor, and William Green,
builder, both of Brick Lane, to whom the manorial leases were granted with
four acres of land. The building had or thereafter acquired a grand hexastyle
Corinthian front.
In 1866 the Blind Beggar was purchased by Mann, Crossman & Paulin, at the
Albion Brewery adjoining, and in 1894 it was rebuilt to designs by Robert
Spence, that company’s engineer and architect. Polished pink granite pilasters
and a central column support a double arch below the eccentrically trimmed
red-brick upper storeys. Inside, the blood-red ceilinged interior has been
much remodelled. Latter-day notoriety turns around the Blind Beggar being the
site of the shooting of Georgie Cornell by Ronnie Kray in 1966.
the missing pots
Contributed by jacqui on Sept. 16, 2016
If you look at older pictures of this pub, there are large plant pots on ledge
above pub sign. These were removed by my father, Jack Holt, in the late 1960s
or 70s, given to him by the landlord. He used them as flower pots and was
proud of the history of them. You can see a picture of the pots in this
newspaper article about the Krays, if you scroll down the page:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/real-life-stories/i-interviewed-krays-here-
blood-6405389
