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Picture source: Stephen Harris

The Lion was situated at 8 Tapp Street. The Lion was a Truman's pub close to Bethnal Green overground station that was closed and converted into housing in 2002. There is still a Truman's notice board on the north side of the building facing the railway. In the 1960s the Lion was known as the Widow's as it was run by the widow of the previous licensee. On 9 March 1966 the Kray twins were drinking in the Lion when they got a message that George Cornell, a former associate of theirs, was drinking in the nearby Blind Beggar.

Colin Price

This pub had been established in the 1870s and for most of its history was a Truman’s Brewery house.  Never a particularly enticing place it seems, it was run in the 1960s by the Kray family and was described as “dingy and evil-looking”.  The Richardson gang were believed to be planning a raid on the pub (where it was thought the Krays had a weapons store) in 1966, but the Krays got in first with a pre-emptive strike on Mr Smith’s club in Catford; but Kray gang member Richard Hart was killed in the process.  A few weeks later, Ronnie Kray was at the Lion when he heard that Richardson gang member George Cornell was drinking nearby at the Blind Beggar and he set out from here to have his revenge.  The pub’s Kray association lasted into the 1970s and it is said that this was a ‘no-go’ area for the police in those days.  The pub struggled on until its closure in 2002.  It is now in private residential use.

Stephen Harris

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Name	Dates	Comments
Jason Kaye	1950s-1960s	Would like to see a picture of the pub in its original livery.