The Blind Beggar Montfort. The pub was built in 1894 on the site of an inn which had been established before 1654, and named after the legend of Henry de Montfort, a son of Simon de Montfort. In 1865, William Booth preached his first open-air sermon outside the Blind Beggar, which led to the establishment of the East London Christian Mission, later to become the Salvation Army. William Booth is commemorated by a nearby statue. The Blind Beggar is notorious for its connection to East End gangsters the Kray twins. On 9 March 1966, Ronnie Kray shot and murdered George Cornell, an associate
FC Kray promoted to the Landesliga Niederrhein and won this league, too, the following year, in 1989. FC Kray played in the tier four Verbandsliga Niederrhein from 1989 to 1993 before dropping back to the Landesliga. FC Kray took until 2000 to return to the Verbandsliga after another Landesliga title. In 2003 the club was relegated from the Verbandsliga again, under unfortunate circumstances. FC Kray had come thirteenth in the league which nominally was enough for survival but Oberliga Nordrhein club Rheydter SV declared insolvency and took up its right for a new start in the Verbandsliga, condemning FC Kray to relegation.