| The Blind Beggar | |
|---|---|
 The Blind Beggar in 2008 | |
  Location within East London | |
 Interactive map of the The Blind Beggar area | |
| General information | |
| Location | 337Whitechapel Road, London E1 1BU |
| Coordinates | 51°31′12″N0°03′25″W / 51.5200°N 0.0569°W /51.5200; -0.0569 |
| Opened | 1894 |
| Website | |
| theblindbeggar.com | |
The Blind Beggar is apub inWhitechapel Road in theEast End of London, England, at the junction with Cambridge Heath Road.
Owing to its location close to Whitechapel Station, the pub is often described as being in Whitechapel. Strictly speaking, however, it stands just on theBethnal Green side of the historic boundary between Bethnal Green and Whitechapel.[1]
The pub takes its name from the ballad and legendThe Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green. The pub is reputed to be built on the site on which the blind beggar begged.
It is whereRonnie Kray murderedGeorge Cornell in front of witnesses. It is also the location ofWilliam Booth's first sermon, which led to the creation of theSalvation Army. It was the nearest outlet (orbrewery tap) for the Manns Albion brewery, where the first modernbrown ale was brewed. The pub was built in 1894 on the site of an inn which had been established before 1654.
The pub was built in 1894 on the site of an inn which had been established before 1654,[2] and named after the famous ballad.
In 1865,William Booth preached his first open-air sermon outside the Blind Beggar, which led to the establishment of the East London Christian Mission, later to become the Salvation Army.[3] William Booth is commemorated by a nearby statue.[4]
The Blind Beggar is notorious for its connection toEast End gangsters theKray twins. On 9 March 1966, Ronnie Kray shot and murderedGeorge Cornell, an associate of a rival gang, theRichardsons, as he was sitting at the bar.[3] The murder took place in the then saloon bar.[5][6]
The pub is also a popular starting point for theMonopoly pub crawl, despite being located on the board's third space.
The pub was frequented byHarry Redknapp and was at one stage owned byBobby Moore.[7]
The pub takes its name from the ballad and legendThe Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green. It stands at the junction of the Whitechapel Road (part of the route from theAldgate toColchester later known as theGreat Essex Road) and Cambridge Heath Road, and is reputed to be on the site of the beggar's activities. In some versions of the ballad, the beggar was an impoverished noble,Henry de Montfort.
In the legend, de Montfort was wounded and lost his sight in theBattle of Evesham in 1265. He was nursed to health by a baroness, and together they had a child named Besse. He became the "Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green" and used to beg at the crossroads. The story of how he went from landed gentry to poor beggar became popular in theTudor era, and was revived byThomas Percy'sReliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765.[8] In 1900, the legend was depicted on theseal of theMetropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green.
Citations
Sources
Media related toThe Blind Beggar at Wikimedia Commons| Associates | |
|---|---|
| Murder victims | |
| Police | |
| Locations | |
| Films |
|
| Related | |
