This east London pub has got a dual reason for fame, it appears on the front cover of a number of Iron Maiden albums, the band also played a gig here on friday the 5th October 1979.
It is also connected to the East London band the Small Faces, the pub was run by the parents of Jimmy Winston (real name Jimmy Langwith), the Small Faces' original keyboard player. Jimmy's old bedroom is now an Indian restaurant attached to the pub.
It was here that Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane met up with Jimmy who had previously told them that he played keyboard in a band with a weekly spot at the pub. On 25 January 1965 Steve joined Jimmy on stage to play harmonica. After the gig, Steve and Ronnie invite Jimmy to join their new band for which they had already recruited Kenney Jones as drummer. Jimmy was not just recruited as an organ player, more importantly his brother had a van. They later used the pub to rehearse upstairs and it was the venue for some of the band's early gigs. Steve Marriott's father Bill used to run a fish stall opposite the Ruskin Arms.
Since 1997, the Ruskin Arms has been used as the venue for the Small Faces conventions and the Ronnie Lane Tribute Concert. The pub is also popular among metal fans thanks to it's connection to Iron Maiden. In September 2009 the Ruskin Arms is closed and is in the process of being demolished, according to rumours planning permission for a 55 room hotel has been granted by the local council.
After a violent incident outside of the pub the license to serve alcohol was revoked, the pub did re-open but shut in 2019 and has since then been closed and boarded up.