The Magdala

Named after the British victory in the 1868 Battle of Magdala, it was the site of a notorious murder in 1955.

The pub building dates back to at least the mid-19th century, being built in mid-Victorian times to serve the developing neighbourhood south of Hampstead Heath.

[1] The building was named after the British victory in the 1868 Battle of Magdala.

[2][3]The pub is included in CAMRA's heritage guide for its interior, which includes a "remarkably intact room from the 1930s" with wood panelling, an Art Deco frieze and a Tudor-style pink marble fireplace.

[1] The pub became infamous as the location outside which Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in the United Kingdom, shot her boyfriend David Blakely in April 1955.

The two "bullet holes" in the wall were drilled by the pub's landlady in the 1990s. [ 4 ]