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 letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

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 by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

.''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

''; 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 just off

Oxford Street Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and ...

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

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

''; 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 of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

; 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 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. The practice of having a government official responsibl ...

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 ...

, was required to report to the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...

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 director and professor, long based in Scotland. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and later moved to Scotland. He began making television commercials befor ...

'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 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 to Lavender Hi ...

'' showed a Bank of England bullion van being waylaid in a very similar manner.

References

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

In popular culture

See also

References