Ruskin Arms

The Story

This East End pub was Iron Maiden's home in the early years of the NWOBHM. The band played on a tiny stage practically on top of the audience, with bands making do with a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. Iron Maiden debuted here in 1978, attracting crowds from afar in the following years. The pub was previously owned by the family of Small Faces' original keyboardist, Jimmy Winston, who played the band's first show here in 1965. The Ruskin Arms is immortalized in Derek Riggs' artwork on the cover of Killers and on the back cover of Somewhere in Time, where the "Ruskin" sign appears. It closed permanently in 2018.

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