Whitechapel Road Road in 1884. Visitors paid to see him in the back room of a shop owned by showman Tom Norman. The shop was directly opposite the Royal London Hospital, and Merrick was frequently visited by doctors. Merrick later moved to the hospital permanently, where he spent the last years of his life. The Blind Beggar is at No. 337 and was the founding point of the Salvation Army following a meeting outside the pub by William Booth in 1865. On 9 March 1966, the venue became notorious after Ronnie Kray fatally shot George Cornell at the pub. The premises remains
The Hobbit (pub) in 2009, operating from a shed in the pub's garden. On 13 March 2012 it was reported that Middle-earth Enterprises, a division of the Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) which oversees copyright issues surrounding Tolkien's works on Middle earth, had accused the pub of copyright infringement over the use of the Hobbit name. The move was strongly criticised by actors Stephen Fry and Ian McKellen, both of whom were to appear in the Hobbit film series, and by John Denham, Member of Parliament for Southampton Itchen. A Facebook campaign to save The Hobbit was launched, and by 16 March 2012 had