So Long, G. Kelly Of Bethnal Green

Click here to book for The Gentle Author’s Tours G.Kelly in happier days This week, I was so saddened to confront the long-closed-up premises of G. Kelly at 444 Bethnal Green Rd – which shut in 2018 never to reopen – that I realised I needed to publish a belated elegy for this beloved institution which served pie and mash to loyal East End customers for over a century. Sue Venning of G.Kelly pie and mash (still open and flourishing at 526 Roman Rd) kindly outlined the genealogy. “Samuel Robert Kelly opened up originally in Bethnal Green in 1915 – he had three sons, Samuel who took over in Bethnal Green, Joe who opened in Bonner St and George who came here to the Roman Rd. My father Bill (George Kelly’s brother-in-law) ran this with my mother Bea, until he died in 1969, and then I took over from her in 1990.” Years have passed now since contributing Photographer Sarah Ainslie and I hit the lunchtime rush at G. Kelly, Bethnal Green Rd, (connected only genealogically to G. Kelly, Roman…