Changes: The Regal

Revision as of 21:28, 30 September 2017

The Regal was a Billiard Hall in Eric Street, Mile End, and was the twins first career move when they acquired it in 1954, both aged twenty.

Initially very run down, the twins renovated it and turned it into not only their base for The Firm, but a moderately successful billiard hall.

History

Around 1952, Samuel Martin opened a billiard hall in Eric Street, a nondescript little turning tucked behind Mile End Underground Station. The premises had once been the 702-seater Forrest’s Electrodrome Cinema, which had first opened in 1910 and closed, never to re-open, in June 1940, during the height of the Blitz. The building had been used thereafter as a factory and a warehouse, but, by all accounts, as a billiard hall it was considered a bit of a ‘dive’, a hangout for all manner of shady characters, petty thieves and National Service dodgers. By 1954, it was somewhat let go: its paintwork needed refreshing and the green baize on its few tables was looking distinctively grey from the cigarette ash that had been carelessly flicked over it by players. After their release from the army in late 1953, the Regal Billiard Hall was a popular haunt for Reggie, Ronnie and their new partner in crime, Dickie Morgan; it was one of a number of places they frequented in those strange, open-ended days after being demobbed. There were also the cafes around the Mile End Road and, frequently, Ziggy’s Cafe off Petticoat Lane. The twins continued to use the Vienna Rooms as their base for a while, revelling in the company of experienced villains, with some of whom they had rubbed shoulders in the more fractious days of desertion.

Ronnie and Reggie first came to know of the run down hall, when news spread that local small-time gangs were meeting there. Unloved and unpainted, it was a meeting place for gangs who fought there and tried cadging money from the manager. The insurance companies were wary of insuring it, and there were rumours of it closing down.

The twins had recently left the army, and had more time on their hands they paid the hall a visit. The manager soon payed the twins five pounds a week to manage the hall. Weekly violence soon stopped, and the twins became the legal tenants of The Regal Billiard Hall. The hall slowly became popular again after a smart refurbishment by Reggie. They soon became the main attraction to the hall, with local villains and ex-cons visiting them on a regular basis.

It was in 1954 that the twins' reputation was established. They had taken over the Regal billiard hall in Eric Stree, off the Mile End Road, and Ronnie cutlassed members of a Maltese gang that tried to extract protection money from them. Word spread. They soon saw their future in clubs, either owning them, extracting protection money from them, or - in Ronnie's case - wielding them. By 1957, they had their own establishment, the Double R, in Bow Road, east London. The Firm, the name by which their gang was known, was born.

Regalfirm — (From left) Billy Donovan, Pat Connolly, Reg Kray, Charlie Kray, Johnny Davis, Tommy Flat, far right unknown, bottom two unknown at Regal Billiards Hall in Bethnal Green, London.

The Regal gave them a foothold and made money by being used as a storehouse for other criminals' knock-off gear and weapons. The hall has long since been demolished and an old people's home now stands peacefully on the site.

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 ==History==
+Around 1952, Samuel Martin opened a billiard hall in Eric Street, a nondescript little turning tucked behind Mile End Underground Station. The premises had once been the 702-seater Forrest’s Electrodrome Cinema, which had first opened in 1910 and closed, never to re-open, in June 1940, during the height of the Blitz. The building had been used thereafter as a factory and a warehouse, but, by all accounts, as a billiard hall it was considered a bit of a ‘dive’, a hangout for all manner of shady characters, petty thieves and National Service dodgers. By 1954, it was somewhat let go: its paintwork needed refreshing and the green baize on its few tables was looking distinctively grey from the cigarette ash that had been carelessly flicked over it by players. After their release from the army in late 1953, the Regal Billiard Hall was a popular haunt for Reggie, Ronnie and their new partner in crime, Dickie Morgan; it was one of a number of places they frequented in those strange, open-ended days after being demobbed. There were also the cafes around the Mile End Road and, frequently, Ziggy’s Cafe off Petticoat Lane. The twins continued to use the Vienna Rooms as their base for a while, revelling in the company of experienced villains, with some of whom they had rubbed shoulders in the more fractious days of desertion.
-Formerly a cinema before the war, and in the 1930s it homed a snooker hall, the twins took over the hall in 1954, where they converted it into a fourteen table Billiard hall.
 [[Ronnie]] and [[Reggie]] first came to know of the run down hall, when news spread that local small-time gangs were meeting there. Unloved and unpainted, it was a meeting place for gangs who fought there and tried cadging money from the manager. The insurance companies were wary of insuring it, and there were rumours of it closing down.
 The twins had recently left the army, and had more time on their hands they paid the hall a visit. The manager soon payed the twins five pounds a week to manage the hall. Weekly violence soon stopped, and the twins became the legal tenants of The Regal Billiard Hall. The hall slowly became popular again after a smart refurbishment by [[Reggie]]. They soon became the main attraction to the hall, with local villains and ex-cons visiting them on a regular basis.
 It was in 1954 that the twins' reputation was established. They had taken over the Regal billiard hall in Eric Stree, off the Mile End Road, and Ronnie cutlassed members of a Maltese gang that tried to extract protection money from them. Word spread. They soon saw their future in clubs, either owning them, extracting protection money from them, or - in Ronnie's case - wielding them. By 1957, they had their own establishment, the Double R, in Bow Road, east London. The Firm, the name by which their gang was known, was born.