The Carpenters Arms, located in Bethnal Green – close to Brick Lane – had a notorious reputation after the gangster twins, Reggie and Ronnie Kray, bought it for their mother in 1967.
Paul Tallentyre, executive director of pubs and bars at property advisers Davis Coffer Lyons which brokered the deal, said the site was “at one time, the most infamous pub in London”.
“Their family home was just 100 yards away, and the twins went to Wood Close School, located immediately behind the pub,” he explained.
He added: “The Krays’ boxing club (Repton Boxing Club, London’s oldest boxing gym, which is still in existence) is midway between the pub and their home.”
“Apparently, the Krays liked the pub because the bar was long and narrow and had just one entrance, which meant they could see anyone coming in.”
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Operator Olivier Trotel Dimaria bought the lease for £125,000 on a 10-year agreement and will pay the private landlord £75,000 a year in rent.
Trotel previously owned the Bow Street Tavern in Covent Garden and sold the pub to City Pub Company for just over £1.1m to facilitate the premium on the new lease.
Tallentyre said the new ownership brought new opportunity for an improvement in trade.
He said: “The former tenants, Eric and Nigel have made a great success of the Carpenters Arms over the past 10 years, after a spell of closure and poor custom and it only narrowly survived being converted into residential use.
“Yet there is still scope to continue to improve trade.”
It is hoped the nearby Whitechapel Crossrail station, set to open in around a year’s time, will boost passing trade.
The Krays ran an organised crime operation from the East End in the 1950s and 1960s and were convicted for their crimes in 1969, after what at the time was the longest murder hearing in British criminal history.
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