SLATED as one of the best boozers in Belgravia, the Star Tavern is a Grade II listed public house on cobbled streets in affluent West London.

It is one of only five pubs to be listed in CAMRA’s Good Beer Guide since 1974 and was renowned for being a venue where high society and low morals rubbed shoulders on a daily basis.

Built in the early 19th century for the servants of the posh residents in its upmarket Belgravia, The Star seemed preordained to mix West End glamour with East End guile.

During the 1950s and 1960s the landlord was a larger than life Irish gambler named Paddy Kennedy, who was renowned for swearing and berating the customers no matter who they were.

Kennedy turned the pub into what was essentially high-class Belgravia’s local seedy dive bar – which is therefore why it is very welcome as Swift Half’s Pub of the Week.

Kennedy was a no-nonsense landlord, as one patron remembers “If you displeased Kennedy in any way, he’d chuck you out – if need be, by force. I saw violence in there but it involved people I hadn’t had the pleasure of being introduced to.

“He was clearly a tough – he didn’t have to open his mouth for you to understand that.”

He also had a way with words, once requesting that celebrity patron Elizabeth Taylor “Get your fat arse off that stool and let my friend sit down”, which she dutifully did.

Some of the ‘Ne’er-do-well’s’ to frequent the public house were the infamous Great Train Robbery gang.

Acting on a tip-off provided by a bent solicitor’s clerk the boys were told that as much as £6million would be transported on a Glasgow to London mail train on August 8, 1963. Bruce Reynolds, a renowned and accomplished criminal, reached out to Buster Edwards, a member of the ‘South Coast Raiders’ train robbery gang. It was at this point that the plan was hatched.

Reynolds, the mastermind behind the operation, regularly commuted from his Streatham home in his Aston Martin to meet up with Edwards and a select few members of the gang at The Star.

This venue served as the backdrop for their meticulous planning sessions leading up to the heist. They always limited the public meetings to a maximum of four individuals at a time, to avoid attracting police attention.

Reynolds was introduced to The Star by his friend Terry Hogan, following their involvement in the Eastcastle Street mailbag robbery of 1952.

The old landlord Paddy Kennedy is now long gone, he is said to have died in a charity home set up by the pub industry, he was penniless on account of his gambling addiction.

Tucked away in a quiet mews, the Star is a pleasant escape from the somewhat similar and bloated bland buildings that Belgravia is known for – a bolthole with the bourgeois (and some blaggers) is well worth a visit in our minds.