please empty your brain below

My late stepmother's late husband used to DJ in one of the Kray Brothers' nightclubs. The Beatles used to pop in every once in a while. Wish I'd plugged him for more details while I had the chance...

for most of his time inside ron used to like making really crap cuddly toys.
in the book 'Our Story'by Reg And Ron Kray (interviewed by fred dineage..how.)theres a great photo of Vi holding the crappest furry rabbit you have ever seen,well you might have seen worse at the fair but yer knawhayahmin she looks so sad.a bit like the rabbit.
underneath it reads
"Our mother, Violet, holding a toy made by Ron in Broadmoor."
i dunno...at least he kept himself busy.

"Made in Broadmoor"
now there's a label you don't see v.often

i grew up in bow and remember my mum ,dad and other older relatives telling me that the krays had a club in bow road next to where the poplar civic building is and facing the docklands railway i think there is a car dealers there now.
i can remember my parents pointing out the derelict house when i was a kid in the seventies i think it has long since gone.
my parents were visiters to the club and remember having to sign a guest book on entry , on one visit they were asked to leave because my aunt was with them and she had recently married into the cornell family and so they were not allowed in again.

Thanks Lorraine, it's fascinating to have a link to notorious local history like this.

I went back and updated this particular entry on January 11th, and there is indeed a car hire firm on the site. You'd never guess its murky past today.

From birth to 5 years of age I lived with my family in a small flat at the top of a very large house. This was 8, Wellington Way Bow. It largely remained empty whilst I was very small. I used to ride my tricycle or pedal car around huge downstairs rooms and corridors. Then it all changed and became a club. From my upstairs bedroom window I would look down and see rows of roulette tables, snooker tables and the air thick with smoke. One day the owner visited arriving in a large American car I was so impressed. For some reason we had to meet him I only remember that he was smiling and pressed a huge half crown coin into my hand. It was only last year, 50 years later that I realised I was living above one of the Krays gambling clubs.

Benjys - later Boheme - was at 562a Mile End Road whereas the Double R Club was at 145 Bow Road. John Pearson in The Profession of Violence remarks that the Double R was close to Bow Road police station, so it is further along, I think. However, Benjys was alongside Eric Street, where the Krays' billiard hall was located.
I had always understood that the Double R Club was on the corner of Bow Rd and Kitcat Terrace, where the Acari rental place is now. My daughter used to work at the Bow Bells and was told this by one of the regulars.










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