The Beckton Arms

Infamous east london pub where notorious hard man Tommy Hole was gunned down in 1999. To our disappointment the pub was closed and appeared to have been taken over by squatters. When did The Beckton Arms close? It looked like a winner from where we were standing.

7 7 7 - Jackpot. The real reason we were back in Canning Town, we had heard rumours that the Beckton Arms was open. First attempted in 2018 to be met with locked doors, we read tales of gangland murders (Google Tommy Hole) and assumed had fallen foul of the Newham council enforcement team.

We did some research, and noticed that each year on google street something had changed, a new sign, a seafood shack, an enormous England flag painted on a wall opposite, there was life, but could it be true. The Beckton Arms is one of the few pubs we've been to which is still not tagged as a location on google maps.

We passed the Mcdonalds and wandered down with baited breath - 68 Beckton Road. There she was, 80th Anniversary of VE Day flags flying above the door, tears in our eyes, we pushed the blue doors open and entered.

Everything we could ever wanted, cash only, jukeboxes, football, an enormous pub, with a landlady happy to chat. Busy when we arrived with a crowd ranging from early 20s to late 60s. We nestled in for 3 pints and some shots, whilst Talking Heads boomed out of the jukey. Kenzie was acosted by two locals in the toilets, who brought him back to our table claiming he'd been watching them in the toilet, thankful it was a joke and we don't have to go through all of that again.

The landlady explained she does dynamic hours, if no ones in she might shut up early and thats likely what happened all those years before. Well here we were and it was everything we had imagined. We spent a fair time here, but knew we had an old favourite to entertain so had to say our goodbyes.

We will most certainly be back, and if you're in Canning Town you should really get yourself down here to sample the delights.