An East End pub once run by a suspected heist mastermind who ‘retired’ to the Costa Del Sol is on the market for £85,000 a year. The Fox was allegedly used by a ruthless London gang planning one of Britain’s biggest armed heists — the £6 million Security Express robbery. Banknotes from the 1983 heist in Shoreditch are then thought to have been stashed at the pub before being moved on to another location.
At the time, the Fox was tenanted by former armed robber Clifford Saxe, who decided to take early retirement in Spain. A respectable new tenant is now being sought for the licensed premises in Hackney under a 20-year, free-of-tie lease. The venue is described as ‘attractive and prominent’ in a guide by commercial property estate agent AG & G. The description says the Fox ‘requires fit-out/investment’ and is available for a guide rent of £85,000 per annum.
No mention is made in the marketing blurb about the Fox’s colourful past and association with one of the biggest cash heists in British history. The loot from the Security Express HQ, which was known as ‘Fort Knox’, consisted of untraceable bank notes weighing five tonnes. Saxe and his accomplices are alleged to have planned the heist from the back room at the Kingsland Road haunt and at least some of the money is said to have been counted there after the raid.
There’s suspicion that a secret compartment at the royal red pub was used to conceal the spoils, according to author Sam Cullen, who has charted London’s lost pubs. Only £2 million of the cash was ever recovered. To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro's London news hub. Saxe was one of Scotland Yard’s most wanted men and part of the ‘Famous Five’ — also including Freddie Foreman, John Mason, Ronald Everet and Ronnie Knight — who fled to Spain.
The publican, who always denied any part in the crime, died in 2002 while awaiting extradition. He was aged in his 70s. Cullen has traced the Fox’s murky history along with the rich and diverse backstories of more than 200 other ‘lost pubs’ in London. ‘In the 80s the Fox had a landlord who apparently was involved in the Security Express robbery,’ he said. ‘After the robbery he very co-incidentally retired to Spain while the police were busy trying to find out what on earth had happened to this money.
‘When they went to the pub the following year, they found a false wall, broke through it and discovered a secret compartment where they thought it had been hidden. It smelt of beer and mildew. ‘Interestingly, the police didn’t necessarily say whether anything had been found there, but when they then found some of the banknotes from the heist, they smelt the same as that room so they thought the loot must have been stored in the pub.’.
Saxe’s former haunt re-launched as a popular craft beer pub in February 2012, in keeping with the changing nature of the Hackney-Shoreditch area, with a roof terrace, photobooth and beer vending machine. Six years later it was closed and boarded up in line with the freeholder’s intention to renovate the building and turn the top floor into flats. The Fox is currently being advertised by the Wellington Pub Company, which runs the largest free of tie pub estate in the UK.
It also has a listing in Cullen’s new book, London’s Lost Pubs. Others around the capital include the Thomas A Becket, a famous boxing pub where Muhammad Ali once visited, the Old King Lud, where Dale Winton was once a DJ, and The Camden Falcon, where Coldplay played one of their first gigs. The writer feels that licensed premises have more of a ‘fighting chance’ now than compared to previous years.
‘There are more ways to save pubs now then there was, say 15 years ago,’ he said. ‘Councils can give pubs listed status and they can be nominated as assets of community value, which gives them a fighting chance. ‘There are some good stories in London, including one in Tottenham called the Antwerp Arms, which was saved from closure by the community. ‘It does help if a pub is in a well-heeled community which can navigate the process.
‘It’s tricky if the person who owns a pub doesn’t want to play ball, but in general there is more that can be done than previously as there are at least things communities can fight back with now.’. Cullen, from Barnes in south-west London, is not writing off pubs like the Fox even when they have been boarded up for many years. ‘Providing the building hasn’t been demolished you never know,’ he said.
‘It’s a shame to walk past the Fox where the owners of the craft beer pub made a go of it for many years until it shut down relatively recently, but it could rise from the ashes. ‘I’d like someone to be reading about a pub that’s been shut for many years in the pub when it’s reopened. ‘I have no problem with the book being out of date because then they’ll know about the struggle and how it was overcome.’.
