please empty your brain below

They used to parade in Whitechapel High Street a lot. Odd they don't anymore
(For non-Londoners, the immediate area is one that has always been one of the fist stopping off places for immigrants. First is was Hugenots, then Irish, then Jews. Over the last thirty years it has become almost exclusively Asian/ The East London Mosque is about 400 yards away.

In his autobiography "I Caught Crippen", Detective Walter Dew talks about a criminal gang known as the "Blind Beggar Mob", who used to use the pub as their headquarters back in the late 19th century.

Even today, the police act with overwhelming force should there be any trouble in this particular boozer...

30+ officers for a common assault isn't uncommon.

Fascinating. The Sally Army started there eh? This is certainly one of the upsides of London - stuffed with good stories.

ah, this is literally on my doorstep, thanks DG!

I would also like to add that the Blind Beggar has very reasonable priced drinks, and a nice warm fire complete with affectionate cat, if anyone is thinking of going there of an evening!

(there are still bulletholes in the wall, but they're behind a picture)

It's strange: when the shooting took place, nobody in the pub at the time saw it, in fact they weren't even there. Go there now and get talking with the locals and suddenly anybody old enough to have been there at the time (and a few who aren't old enough) will be able to give you every last detail of what they saw!

I usually work in North London, but every so often I have to trek that bit further to Aldgate. Today is one of those days, so I'm just down the road. Ace timing.

Where do you get this stuff? Do you research before a 'historical' post ... library, internet, interviews .... or do you just happen to know from living and breathing London? Whatever it is, please keep on.

I used to drink in the Blind Beggar most lunchtimes, about 10 years ago, and then they had lovely red leather sofas. Those black ones don't look half as nice... But they did, and I'm sure do, a nice pint of Guinness. And it was in this pub I found out about the explosion of the IRA attack on Canary Wharf. I was in the Hosptial Tavern over the road at the time of the 'bang', but didn't hear it!

The Blind Begger featured in an episode of Waking the Dead, if memory serves. Or was it Frost?

Anyway, it being the pub of choice of gangster-types was made much of.

You would have thought the Blind Beggar would have been bigger. Much bigger. After all, about 500,000 cockneys claim to have been in the place when Ronnie did for Geroge Cornell.

It expands exponentially











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