Blind Beggar

This is one of my favourite pubs in the Whitechapel area, unassuming and definitely rough around the edges, it is charming inside and has a truly fantastic history and welcoming presence.
The staff are friendly (even when the place is packed) and serve you with a smile and a joke!
There is a secret garden to the right of the pub that unless you know the pub you wouldn’t know was there. Perfect for long summer nights.
And now to the history, this was one of the Cray Brother’s local haunts and you can feel the history in the decaying walls and worn furniture but for me this just adds to the wonder of this pub. I just love it!

Great place to watch the game as they have a gigantic screen. Too bad Scotland lost despite a pretty good game! I had to pause this review to cheer them on!
The Blind Begger’s history is pretty cool due to its connections with the Kray brothers. East London history (gangsters, serial killers, etc) fascinates me. Anyone who has seen the recent movie Legend will enjoy coming to the Blind Beggar if for nothing more than context.
The Blind Beggar also has some pretty cool perks including a giant screen for games, open fire place, and pool table. Though my husband complained that the pool table is expensive at 1.50 it’s easy to get it to give you free games!
The staff here are pretty great and the customer service ranks above average, which is pretty good for London.
I had some food here (frank and fries), which was amazing! After watching the cook make other orders, I couldn’t resist! It was the perfect slightly drunk food! Best pub food ever.
The blind beggar is probably my favourite pub in the area! We had a great night here!

I’ve driven past this pub for years, always wanting to give it a try. I was curious as to what it would be like as it is the the heart of London’s 1960’s gangland. I was hoping to soak up a real East End atmosphere at the place where Ronnie Kray shot Cornell. This place is part of recent history as far as I was concerned.
I finally got to visit this pub for the first time earlier this month. I was so disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but this place did nothing for me. It was just an ordinary boozer fitted to look more like a gastropub, but not quite pulling it off. The décor was pretty bland with the only reference to any ganland history, was a photo of the Kray brothers hanging on the wall. The place was quite busy, and the kitchen seemed to be churning out what looked like standard burgers. There is also a pool room at the back of the bar area.
I returned a few days ago (only because I it was the nearest pub I could see to Whitchapel station). This visit just reconfirmed my earlier impression. So, so disappointed!

Pleasantly surprised by this East London pub.
. and great to find somewhere quiet enough and off the beaten path where you can hear yourself think and which is conducive to catching up with friends.
It doesn’t look much from the outside, but has a nice beer garden, not beautiful as such, but just nice as I like pubs with outdoor space, which is also partly covered for any bad weather and I was rather fixated by the water features there — The corner bubbling with blue watery light.
It’s shielded from the road by high walls, so you feel out of the bustle of Whitechapel, and with some space to relax.
With a personal emotional and family attachment to Thatcher’s, I can’t but have a soft spot for this pub as they currently serve Thatcher’s Cheddar Valley and Thatcher’s Heritage. Both are delicious, so I’d suggest trying them (shameless plug there).
Although they have a limited selection of drinks, they do have doom bar which is also a favourite.
Staff are friendly enough and I quite enjoyed the surreal edge to this venue. They also have a great indoor space, big and small tables perfect for meeting groups of friends, or one to one chats.

Buen pub para tomarse unas cuantas pintas en la terraza. Las hamburguesas son muy buenas! Recomendado! Por cierto la camarera es española!

Bought beer and food on a saturday lunchtime. As a result, I didn’t realise until later I’d been charged £6 for the pint. Food was nice though.

Since I have decided to pub around the whole neighbourhood that I am about to move in, I just happened to be at that one. My friend enjoyed the football game, while I was multitasking and working. Two large TVs and a lot of football fans. Nice staff, cosy fire in the fireplace. The only thing that bothered me was that I was extremely hungry and the kitchen wasn’t working at 8pm. I do recommend it, but they really nees to work on that food thing.

Dropped in a couple of times over the last few months. Polite staff. intially thought the beer was expensive but there were a group of us the second time around and we worked out the main expense was the Peroni at £4.50 a pint.
Bought a Kray tour booklet in the pub and I think you can buy teeshirts as well so its past is still evident.
Men’s toliets have hardly any space, possibly the smallest I have ever seen in a pub and a bit rough too.
Beer garden is great, there were about 9 of us and we got a space to drink at in the Saturday afternoon sunshine. Inside there is a pub game of Jenga with some explicit forfeits, good for an adult laugh after a few drinks.
I go back from time to time just because of its connection with a bygone East London age.

Just dropped in at midnight today, and yeah the staff is lovely, the atmosphere is kind of late studentyish, and the drinks are cheap.
It was really cool to see this cat coming from across the room, straight in my laps, and I am not a cat person but the whole surprise thing was cute.
This is a nice place.

I have always known this as the place where Ronnie Kray shot George Cornell and had always intended to visit this pub and take in a piece of London’s gangland history. Henceforth I will know this pub as the first place in the UK where I paid more than 4 pounds for a pint. And not just a little more — £4.40 for a Peroni! Went for the lager as the London Pride tasted quite bland, but regretted it slightly when told the cost. Was a very nice pint though (as I’d expect for that price!)
For some reason I expected this to be quite a rough as sandpaper, good old fashioned pub so I was slightly disappointed by the clean and modern interior. How nice of them to leave the toilets unmodernised though, as a grim souvenir of the past :(
Well — at least I’ve seen the place now. And no I’m not just sore because I didn’t get to meet the resident cat.

Now I had totally forgotten about this pub until my dad mentioned that it was were the Cray brothers use to hang out. Now that is a slice of London history!
So I’ve been here a few times, once to eat what they call «food» (yep, don’t bother) and the second was for a drink with friends. Now it’s a locals pub, and seeing as I wasn’t a local, it did get a little terrifying as the evening went on. So why, you may ask, have I given this shit hole more than 1 star? Well, it doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. Yup, it’s basic food, cheap booze and smelly locals but it’s also a proper east end boozer, with shed loads of history, a decent patio space to drink in outside and two huge fat cats that loll around all day looking cute. Now these are some seriously over weight cats. But they are too cute for words and they cuddle each other.
If you’re not a cat fan, or if they aren’t there when you visit this will probably be a 2 star pub, okay a 1 star. :O)

With it’s overwhelming gagster history, the pub offered me a somewhat underwhelming first impression.
The pub itself is dark and seems starved of light. I ordered a drink at the bar but they unfortunately didn’t take card, so I had to walk down to the cash point.
They have tried to really improve the outside area and it looks aesthetically ok, but seem so lack atmosphere for some reason. The patrons are a mix of old men, young couples and and your cool Hoxtonites.
I think this pub could be really improved by promoting outside events, bbqs etc, to a targeted audience. At the moment, they really don’t do much to give the pub any kind of personality or attract anyone in particular.

Famed for its association with the murderous Kray brothers, I wasn’t expecting much from this pub. Gangland villains and I never seem to have that much in common really, they like shooting people with guns and I like shooting people with sarcasm.
The Blind Beggar is your standard traditional English pub, with terrifying toilets but the cutest cats and a charming Northern Irish bar maid. The inside seating was a bit gross for us, so we took refuge from the rain in the huge, canopied beer garden outside. Fantastic discussions were had about bloods versus crypts, gangs versus the mafia and what happens when you get stuck in the friend zone.
We were stuck between two tables of locals who enjoyed blowing cigar smoke in our faces the whole time. Yeah I really wouldn’t go back here, not my scene.

I went in here planning a 1* review. For it to have come out with a 3* review is a small miracle, probably affected by the company I was with.
As Laura N says, Blind Beggar Haz Beer, Blind Beggar Haz Beer Garden. Blind Beggar Also Haz Full Bar, so I get my white rum and cola and I’m a happy man after just about stomaching a single gin earlier in the afternoon.
The saloon and beer garden are perfectly adequate places to drink — and the beer garden’s canopy added much needed drinking space this afternoon, even in London’s fairly extravagant downpours!
However, be warned: the loos are a *distinctly* 1* experience. Fortunately the drinks (hmm, some slightly questionable free-​pouring happening of spirits here!) were good and reasonably priced.
It’s a boozer in the good old East End style. About as fair an approximation to the Queen Vic you’ll find in London nowadays!

They have beer.
They have a garden in which to consume beer.
They serve cheap proper pub fare.
They have some sort of gangland history which, well, I know nothing about.
Overall, I’d say this pub is about as inspiring as this review.

Nice Little Pub I thought. You can’t really knock the history, fancy there being a London gangland assasination right roundabouts where you can drink!?! That’s when history comes to life people.
We spent some time outside in the ‘beer garden’ which I didn’t really like. Someone has spent a lot of money on silly little Japanese-​style water features, and apparently there’s a carp pond somewhere. Silliness like that doesn’t really cut it wi me. But drinks are fairly cheap, I seem to remember there was someone asleep at the bar when I was there. Little things like that make it a bit charming.
Never gonna be the place to spend all your weekends. But as good a pub as any on which to start the night.

When I went to the Blind Beggar I had just finished shopping at Sainsburys (always an epic struggle) and I wanted a nice pint and to relax. What I didn’t really want is to be watched wearyingly by three old men sitting in a corner, and then barked at for taking a picture of the inside! I mean what harm am I doing? However, I can’t blame the business for the patrons, and the pub itself is a very traditionally styled fare with alot of history. I don’t think it is somewhere you’d want to take your kids but the menu of possible pub food suggests otherwise. Maybe a pub for regulars, and not always the nicest of regulars… so this isn’t where you want to go just for a nice pint one night, your either in or your out! According to those old men in the corner, anyway…

The Blind Beggar has come a long way since it played host to Britain’s two most infamous gangsters, Ronnie and Reggie Kray. According to local legend, when Ronnie Kray killed rival gangster George Cornell a bullet from his gun got lodged in the wall and remains there to this day. I saw no evidence of this myself but it’s more than likely that if it was there it has subsequently been plastered over in the recent refurbishments.
It was as a fresh-​faced fresher that I took my first steps into this famous establishment and, in the height of its refurbishment; it was certainly not all that welcoming. The lady at the bar seemed thoroughly disgusted by the presence of an 18-​year old and the gentlemen perched on bar stools were not really the chatty sort. I drank my pint as quickly as I could and left. However, I did feel, in a very immature way, quite titillated at the thought that I had trodden that hollowed ground of East End life. This sinister edge has subsequently disappeared for better or worse.
The Blind Beggar holds a romantic attraction for many as the dark epicentre of a bygone era, but if it wasn’t for the pub’s insistence on playing on this fact it would probably go entirely unnoticed. Recently awarded prizes for ‘Best Beer Garden’ and ‘Best Pub Restaurant’, The Beggar has turned into a thoroughly family affair. With the arrival of new chefs recently it can boast an extensive menu of top-​notch food at decent prices. To accompany they offer a range of lagers, real ales and wines.

I’m a big fan of this pub. Mainly because it has a cat.
I haven’t been in a while — my best mate has moved, and the east London line being down makes is difficult to get to from my place, but if I ever found myself in this part of town, it’s a nice place to cosy up in.
There’s a nice little beer garden outside, but this pub is more fun when it’s cold and rainy outside — then you can sit by the fire with a drink, a book, and a cute kitty purring next to you.
Fun!

I visited this pub on a lunch time and was very surprised how few customers were in. This house was built in 1894 The pub took its name from the legendary character The blind beggar of bethnal green, A man after being wounded, disfiqured, and blinded during the Battle of Evesham in 1265, The Blind Begger also appears on the Bethnal Green coat of arms. On the 9^th March 1966 Ronnie Kray walked into the saloon bar and shot George Cornell in the head using a 9 mm Mauser, susposedly because he had called Ronnie a big fat poof, and it is said that the record playing on the juke box was The sun aint gonna shine anymore by the walker brothers Anyway I enjoyed a good pint of London Pride, and although there were very few customers I felt comfortable. and welcome,

Weekly quiz nights on a Tuesday are absolutely legendary at this East End institution. None of yr Shoreditch riff-​raff in here (just 100 metres too far from the hubbub), this pub boasts an airy beer garden which nearly drowns out the car exhausts from inner city traffic. Resident cat Peggy is also a joy to behold!