The Blind Beggar

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The once-notorious Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel Road in quieter times. (November 2005)

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Related organizations Volunteers of America · Skeleton Army · The Blind Beggar
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The Blind Beggar is a public house in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is located in the Whitechapel Road, Whitechapel.

It was built in 1894 on the site of another inn, established before 1654^[1], and named after the legend of Henry de Montfort, a son of Simon de Montfort. He was wounded and lost his sight in the Battle of Evesham in 1265, and was nursed to health by a baroness, and together they had a child named Besse (commemorated in Besse Road). 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 hugely popular in the Tudor era, and was revived by Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765^[2]. The legend came to be adopted in the arms of the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green in 1900.

The Blind Beggar is a common tourist attraction for Salvationists. It is known as the site on which The Salvation Army started, as in 1865, it was outside the public house that William Booth preached his first sermon. William Booth is commemorated by a nearby statue^[3].

The Blind Beggar is notorious for its connection to East End gangsters, the Kray twins. On 9 March 1966, Ronnie Kray shot and murdered George Cornell, an associate of a rival gang, the Richardsons, as he was sitting at the bar. The Murder took place in the then saloon bar^[4].

The pub is also a popular starting point for the Monopoly Pub Crawl, despite being located on the board's third space.