Does anyone remember this place , You could buy anything there off the back of wagons , The café on the corner you got a good meal for a reasonable price. The pubs around the place were very interesting , the Greengates with its strippers was a bit of a dive . Any more memories ?
Is that the place they called the ramp, used to get a lot of B.Barnes on there from Rawtenstall and Brevitt carriers from Willenhall ?
No, The Ramp was on Shoreditch High Street by the end of Bethnal Green Road.
Vallance Road was much further up Bethnal Green Road and was handy for The
Blind Beggar. The Green Gate was my “local” and the strippers were the best in
the area!
jeffrey ellener:
Does anyone remember this place , You could buy anything there off the back of wagons , The café on the corner you got a good meal for a reasonable price. The pubs around the place were very interesting , the Greengates with its strippers was a bit of a dive . Any more memories ?
Hello Jeffrey, I spent many a night in 1973/4 cabbing it on Vallance Road car park, if you were parking up before four o’clock you had to park around the corner in Montague Street and wait until some of the cars that had been parked there for the day had left. If you did manage to get on there early it was a case of shuffling around, late starters along the back wall and the early starters parked at the front by the gate. The place was a gap in between the houses and shops and I always thought that it was where several houses had been demolished during The Blitz. Do you remember the Y.M.C.A. Doss House just around the corner on Whitechapel Road where you could get a wash and brush up for five pence. (The old lads will know what I mean by that last sentence, the new ones will probably think it was something like Lymm Services sounds like nowadays). 
The Blind Begger pub was often a starter for early doors and it was a novelty that the pubs didn’t close in London until 11 p.m. during the week when it was 10.30 p.m. oop North and 10 p.m. in Scotland so we made the most of it.
There was a Jewish bakers shop on Vallance Road that opened at 11 p.m. and started selling freshly baked bread and bagels and often during the week several lorry drivers could be seen after the pubs had closed walking back to the car park eating warm fresh bagels before being chatted up by Bridget The Midget, the local bike. 
Was the Blind Beggar pub one of the Cray brothers haunts,IIRC someone met his death there?
David
Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitty copped it in that boozer I think. I think he was stabbed. My Grandad told me he went in that boozer once and he thought it best to look at his shoes rather than make eye contact with some of the geezers in there.
mushroomman:
jeffrey ellener:
Does anyone remember this place , You could buy anything there off the back of wagons , The café on the corner you got a good meal for a reasonable price. The pubs around the place were very interesting , the Greengates with its strippers was a bit of a dive . Any more memories ?Hello Jeffrey, I spent many a night in 1973/4 cabbing it on Vallance Road car park, if you were parking up before four o’clock you had to park around the corner in Montague Street and wait until some of the cars that had been parked there for the day had left. If you did manage to get on there early it was a case of shuffling around, late starters along the back wall and the early starters parked at the front by the gate. The place was a gap in between the houses and shops and I always thought that it was where several houses had been demolished during The Blitz. Do you remember the Y.M.C.A. Doss House just around the corner on Whitechapel Road where you could get a wash and brush up for five pence. (The old lads will know what I mean by that last sentence, the new ones will probably think it was something like Lymm Services sounds like nowadays).
The Blind Begger pub was often a starter for early doors and it was a novelty that the pubs didn’t close in London until 11 p.m. during the week when it was 10.30 p.m. oop North and 10 p.m. in Scotland so we made the most of it.
There was a Jewish bakers shop on Vallance Road that opened at 11 p.m. and started selling freshly baked bread and bagels and often during the week several lorry drivers could be seen after the pubs had closed walking back to the car park eating warm fresh bagels before being chatted up by Bridget The Midget, the local bike.
Yes I do, they did put a portacabin in the carpark later on but it was best to get a wash/shower somewere else before you parked up lol
The ramp was part of the old bishopsgate goods yard, near where shoreditch high st and bethnal green rd meet. The ramp lasted (but closed off) until the mid-2000s when the whole site was demolished ready for the new overground line. The land that is still left is about to get redeveloped into flats and offices.
The green gate on bethnal green road closed in the 90s and is now a mini market. But the frame of the old pub sign is still there, just without the green gate sign board. The blind beggar is still going though.
Vallance road was heavily bombed right up towards the end of ww2 so almost certainly the lorry park was a cleared bomb site and/or slum clearance
NZ JAMIE:
Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitty copped it in that boozer I think. I think he was stabbed. My Grandad told me he went in that boozer once and he thought it best to look at his shoes rather than make eye contact with some of the geezers in there.
Thanks for the confirmation Jamie,I thought I read that somewhere in the dim and distant past.
David
There was another pub I cant remember its name , the Blue something and the landlord and landlady used to sit at the end of the bar all dressed up as if they were going out on the town but sat there all night . It was very small just one room I think but quite busy.
It was George Cornell who was shot dead in the Blind Begger by Reggie Kray, around 1967. Jack “the hat” Macvite was stabbed to death in a private house by Ronnie. I think he was lured there believing he was going to a party. This is according to one of the books I have read about the London underworld.
Incidentally I’m pretty sure the Krays were born in Vallance Rd. Cheers Haddy.
The Krays certainly did live in Vallance road.
I did a lot of railway work at the end of pedley street which is up by the railway bridge and used to spend plenty of time sitting waiting for machines . I got to know a couple of old boys who would come out and chat to us while they had a beer of an evening.
They told me many a story, some good some scary, about the 60s and the Krays. They weren’t larging it up just talking about old times. Sounded like an interesting place at the time.
Cheers
Neilf
I was just looking back at my last post and I remembered that the Doss House on Whitechapel Road where we used to have a wash actually belonged to The Salvation Army and not the Y.M.C.A.
A few years ago I wrote about a night out on Vallance Road in the seventies but I was a bit embarrassed about putting it on Trucknet. 
Regards Steve.
haddy:
It was George Cornell who was shot dead in the Blind Begger by Reggie Kray, around 1967. Jack “the hat” Macvite was stabbed to death in a private house by Ronnie. I think he was lured there believing he was going to a party. This is according to one of the books I have read about the London underworld.
Incidentally I’m pretty sure the Krays were born in Vallance Rd. Cheers Haddy.
Good one thanks mate.
The Krays were born in Stean Street Hoxton in 1933 and moved to 178 Vallance Road in 1938.
I remember stopping a few times at Vallance road in the early 80s. I tried my first ever kebab & jellied eels after being on the lash all night. Kebab was nice but the eels…YUK. lol. I had a Big J at the time delivering cooking oils all round the smoke.
jeffrey ellener:
There was another pub I cant remember its name , the Blue something and the landlord and landlady used to sit at the end of the bar all dressed up as if they were going out on the town but sat there all night . It was very small just one room I think but quite busy.
Ship and Blue Ball perchance?
Seconds away from the White Horse, Crown and Dolphin!
The Crown had an acrow right against the bar propping up the ceiling…
and the landlord was an old geezer with long white hair…
haddy:
It was George Cornell who was shot dead in the Blind Begger by Reggie Kray, around 1967. Jack “the hat” Macvite was stabbed to death in a private house by Ronnie. I think he was lured there believing he was going to a party. This is according to one of the books I have read about the London underworld.
Incidentally I’m pretty sure the Krays were born in Vallance Rd. Cheers Haddy.
Other way round, George Cornell was shot in The Blind Beggar by Ronnie, after George Cornell had called Ronnie a “Fat ■■■■”. Jack the Hat was stabbed by Reggie!
Greetings,All.Allegedly,in the Blind Beggar you could order a Luger and Lime in the old days. 
900x20.
Although, somewhere I never went, I used to listen to our drivers who stayed there.
In the seventies it seemed that our lot moved over to staying at Kingston On Thames, and the East end lost its popularity, but in the early sixties several claimed they regularly saw and in one or two occasions spoke to the Kray Twins and their entourage.
The other thing I was told from those times was that Dusty Springfield, in the height of her fame frequented the pubs with her lesbian lover. This was reported to me long before it became knowledge that she was a lesbian, and when about a year later it was reported in the newspapers I already knew. Apparently she felt she could go out and be herself in the safety of the East end pubs.