Esmeralda's Barn

Esmeralda's Barn was a nightclub in Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London, that was owned by the Kray Twins from 1960 until its closure in 1963. The Krays used the club as a way of expanding their criminal activities into London's West End.

In the 1950s, Esmeralda's Barn was a conventional nightclub run by Stefan de Faye. After the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 legalised gambling in the United Kingdom from 1961, de Faye turned Esmeralda's Barn into a gambling 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.

The Kray twins were London gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray. They acquired Esmeralda's Barn as a result of their attempt to extort landlord Peter Rachman although the exact nature of Rachman's interest in the club, if any, is unclear. Ronnie Kray had become aware of the wealth that Rachman was accumulating through his property empire and wanted a share of it. With his associates he visited Rachman in Soho and succeeded in extracting a cheque from Rachman. The cheque bounced and when Ronnie tried to collect the money Rachman was not to be found. Rachman knew that if he started to pay the Krays for protection they would continue to milk him indefinitely, so he needed to buy them off permanently. He therefore arranged for the Krays, through one of their front men Leslie Payne (who Ronnie later tried to have killed), to buy Esmeralda's Barn from Stefan de Faye for the sum of £1,000.

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.

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 like his filmstar hero George Raft. Regular visitors included the artists Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. The club also became a useful front for the Kray's criminal activities, including the prostitution of young boys whom they used to entrap blackmail targets.

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