Esmeralda's Barn

[3] Esmeralda's Barn[4] was conceived, designed (with murals by Pietro Annigoni) and owned by Mrs. Esme Noel Smith, and opened in February 1955 as a members theatre club.

According to John Pearson, the Act, which was intended to drive criminals out of gambling, instead proved a boon to them as it enabled them to expand their empires legally.

[7] He therefore arranged for the Krays, through one of their front men Leslie Payne (whom Ronnie later tried to have killed),[3] to buy Esmeralda's Barn from Stefan de Faye for the sum of £1,000.

[6] Charlie Kray, however, the older brother of the twins, later told a different version of events in which he played a key role in negotiating the purchase from the owners for the sum of £2,000 and the sale was introduced by a Commander Diamond without any involvement by Rachman.

[9] The club became a lucrative venture for the twins and enabled Reggie to play the part of the celebrity gangster, as he had always aspired to be like his filmstar hero George Raft.

They either did not know or more likely did not care about his poor reputation and past criminal convictions, bankruptcy, bounced cheques, assaults, a dropped charge of manslaughter and the imprisonment of an ex-wife in Holloway as a threat to the British state.

[13] William Ives, a former boxer and, before his death in 2017, one of the richest men in Britain, worked as a doorman at the club during the Kray era.