History

The Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch was previously the Old Street Magistrates’ Court and Police Station. In its time the court and police station saw some very high-profile cases and some even more peculiar ones.

In 1931 on December 19th Eric Arthur Blair set out to get himself arrested. He was hoping to document his experience inside; initially he was taken to Bethnal Green police station, where he gave a fake name and occupation. A few days later he was taken to Old Street Magistrates’ Court and Police Station. He was charged with being “drunk and incapable” but was let off his fine and released. Eric Arthur Blair is more famously known as George Orwell, writer of Animal Farm and 1984.

However the most famous case at Old Street Magistrates’ Court and Police Station is that of the infamous Kray Twins. The most notorious East End gangsters of their time, they were accused of “demanding money with menaces” and were involved in organised crime throughout the 50s and 60s. Finally in 1969 the brothers were brought to justice and sentenced to life imprisonment. You can now enjoy a cocktail in the cell they would have stayed in.