King William IV

King William IV, or more commonly known as King Billy, was a Victorian public house on Nags Head Lane, Whitechapel, which got passed down to Frank Adkins, after the death of his father in the 1980s. There was a cellar underneath the bar, where Adkins would harbour fugitives for a fee of £20 a night. In 1990, he gave accommodation to Miguel González, who was hiding from Nathan Harwick.

There is much speculation when the pub got built, though it opened for business in the 1880s. The Adkins family acquired the pub, Adkins paternal grandfather purchased it in 1910.

History
The pub was traditionally called The Royal Charles, named after the ship. According to legend, it was built sometime in the late nineteenth century, on the site of a former workhouse and the first landlord was called Albert, but these allegations have never been confirmed. Geoffrey Adkins brought the pub in 1910 and from then on it was owned by the Adkins family. Following Geoffrey's death in the 1950s, his son Arthur became the landlord. Though, he eventually passed it down to his son Frank, after his death in 1983. However, after Frank was murdered in 1991, the pub was closed for many years, and while the London Borough Council wanted to demolish it, they could not because it was a grade two listed building. In 2007, Frank's son Dave became the new manager until it's closure in 2017. During the time of Frank being the manager, it gained the reputation of "somewhere fugitives could escape the law", due to Frank charging £20 per night to stay in the basement, only a few could acquire keys to.

King William IV was notorious for its connection to the murder of the landlord Frank Adkins, who was shot in 1991, by American gangster Nathan Harwick. The murder happened due to Adkins lying about knowing Miguel Gonzalez, who Harwick had spent five years searching for, as he murdered his younger brother Simon Harwick.