The Eastcastle Street robbery was the holdup of a

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

van in London in May 1952 which, at the time, was Britain's largest postwar

robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person o ...

.''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''; 26 January 1995; "Final curtain for robber who got away" The robbers escaped with £287,000 (estimated to be worth, in 2019, approximately £). It occurred around 4:20am on Wednesday 21 May in

Eastcastle Street Eastcastle Street is a street in the City of Westminster. It runs from Newman Street in the east to Great Titchfield Street in the west. It is crossed by Berners Street and Wells Street. Winsley Street runs from its south side. Berners Mews joins ...

just off

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running between Marble Arch and Tottenham Court Road via Oxford Circus. It marks the notional boundary between the areas of Fitzrovia and Marylebone to t ...

, central London, when seven masked men held up a post office van.''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''; 22 May 1952; "London Mail Robbery Security Measures Tightened" The robbers used two cars to sandwich the van. The first car emerged slowly from a side street causing the van to slow down, the second car then pulled up alongside.The Times, 23 May 1952; "£200,000 Stolen From Van" The driver and two attendants were dragged out and coshed and the van was stolen. It was later found abandoned near

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, Borough of Camden (and historical ...

; 18 of the 31 mailbags were missing. It was found that the van's alarm bell had been tampered with. The robbery heralded the start of the 'project' (i.e. a carefully planned and executed) crime. The mastermind behind the raid was London gangster Billy Hill and the robbers included George "Taters" Chatham and Terry "Lucky Tel" Hogan. Prime Minister

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

demanded daily updates on the police investigation and the

Postmaster General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. History The practice of having a government official ...

Earl de la Warr Earl De La Warr ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1761 for John West, 7th Baron De La Warr. The Earl holds the subsidiary titles of Viscount Cantelupe (1761) in the Peerage of Great Britain, Baron De La Warr (15 ...

, was required to report to the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, and may also legislate for the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace ...

on what had gone wrong. Yet, despite the involvement of over 1,000 police officers, no one was ever caught.''The Guardian''; "Obituary: George 'Taters' Chatham: A burglar's rich pickings"; 7 June 1997

In popular culture

The plot of

Alexander Mackendrick Alexander Mackendrick (September 8, 1912 – December 22, 1993) was an American-born Scottish film director and screenwriter. He directed nine feature films between 1949 and 1967, before retiring from filmmaking to become an influential profess ...

's 1955 comedy film '' The Ladykillers'' references the robbery, which was still unsolved at the time, and implies that the characters had a hand in it. Coincidentally, a film made the year prior to the incident, ''

The Lavender Hill Mob ''The Lavender Hill Mob'' is a 1951 British comedy film from Ealing Studios, written by T. E. B. Clarke, directed by Charles Crichton, starring Alec Guinness and Stanley Holloway and featuring Sid James and Alfie Bass. The title refers ...

'' showed a

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the Kingdom of England, English Government's banker and debt manager, and still one ...

bullion van being waylaid in a very similar manner.

References

Organised crime events in the United Kingdom 1952 crimes in the United Kingdom Robberies in London Crime in the City of Westminster 1950s in the City of Westminster 1952 in London 1950s crimes in London May 1952 in the United Kingdom Unsolved crimes in the United Kingdom {{UK-hist-stub

In popular culture

See also

References