The Deadliest Pubs in London

Pubs - the perfect pastime for London's ever expanding populous, whether you're popular, poor, parched or are just a perpetual piss-head.

With over 7000 pubs in our capital alone, you're never short of a hospitable hostelry to wet your whistle in, whether your refreshment needs be a little libation, a "wee swally", a few cheekies or a full on sesh'. 

But... have you ever been perched on a stool next to a serial killer? Ever got chatting to a "really nice chap" who - unbeknownst to you - keeps corpses in his cellar? What, not even swigged back a Martini with a murderer, a pint with a poisoner, or cadged a fag outside off a callous killer? No. 

Are you sure? Because the chances are... you have. What follows is a hand little list of pubs which the more infamous of London's serial killers and murders hung out in, either for a "swifty", a "nibble", or as a pick-up joint to prey on their next - slightly intoxicated - victims. 

• The Golden Lion (Dean Street, Soho), where "pleasant but slightly shy" serial killer Dennis Nilsen drank, danced and dated with at least four of his victims. All of whom were later abused, butchered, broiled on the hob, and flushed down the bog back at Dennis' flat. 
• The Coleherne (Earl’s Court), an infamous homosexual hang-out, and second home to three serial killers; Dennis Nilsen, Colin Ireland and Michael Lupo. 

Colin Ireland, a sadomasochist who was supposedly "heterosexual", lured five gay men to their deaths (Peter Walker, Christopher Dunn, Peter Bradley III, Andrew Collier and Emanuel Spiteri) in 1993, having made a New Year's resolution to become a serial killer. His victims were chosen, courtesy of the Coleherne customer's colour-coded handkerchiefs (indicating which were sexually passive and into sadomasochism). 

Michael Lupo, an Italian who travelled extensively, murdered four young men who - like Nilsen and Ireland - preyed upon on his colour-coded victims at The Coleherne. Later sentenced to four life sentences, plus 14 years for two attempted murders, Lupo is believed to have committed murders wherever he travelled including America, Italy and Germany. 

• The Black Cap (Camden), a favourite pick-up joints for Dennis Nilsen, and Anthony Hardy "The Camden Ripper" who frequented here, and dumped the dismembered body of his victims behind the The College Arms pub (Crowndale Road - now demolished). 
• The Goat Tavern (Kensington), where infamous acid-bath murderer John George Haigh lured his first victim William McSwan by dissolving his body in a drum of sulphuric acid, forging his papers and selling Swan's personal possessions. 
• "Rodo" & "El Hueco" (26 Denmark Street, Soho), where John "The Gypsy" Thompson, annoyed at being overcharged for a drink, started a blaze in an illegal nightclub, so fierce, that it killed 37 revellers, making this the "deadliest blaze in London since the Blitz". 
• The Plumber's Arms (Belgravia), where a bloodied Lady Lucan burst in, crying out: “Help me, help me, I’ve just escaped from being murdered”,  although it is believed that Lucan killed 29-year-old nanny Sandra Rivett, then disappeared without a trace.
• The Blind Beggar (337 Whitechapel Road), where Ronald Kray (of the notorious East End Gangster's the Kray Twins) shot George Cornell through the head, on the 8th March 1966. 
• The Champion (Bayswater), where Britain's most notorious serial killer Dennis Nilsen met "Twinkle", who he believed was the love of his life, but - upon rejecting him - sent the shy and reclusive Nilsen into a killing spree that would end five years later, with 15 men dead, and another 8 men very lucky to still be alive.
• The Ten Bells (Spitalfields), supposedly where local prostitutes Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly drank, before being murdered by Jack the Ripper. If you believe any of that crap?

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are certainly other pubs, and other killers, which you are more than welcome to add in the comments section below. And, obviously, I can't include all the serial killers who are currently out there, right now, sitting next to you in a bar, asking you for the time, borrowing your paper, or (supposedly) whistling a merry little tune as they mind their own business - or so you think? Anyway, stay safe.
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Cheers!​

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Michael J Buchanan-Dunne is a writer, crime historian and tour-guide who runs Murder Mile Walks, a guided tour of Soho’s most notorious murder cases, hailed as “one of the top ten quirky & unusual things to do in London” and featuring 18 murderers, 3 serial killers, across 21 locations, totalling 75 deaths, over just a one mile walk.