Customers have reacted with shock at a double killing which has torn apart a well-known family who ran the famous 24-hour Beigel Bake shop in London’s East End.
Leah Cohen, 66, was stabbed to death along with her daughter Hannah Cohen, 33, at their north London home on Friday.
Her son Joshua Cohen, 27, is charged with two murders in Golder’s Green and is due at an Old Bailey hearing tomorrow.
The family business in Bethnal Green was still open this week for the famous salt beef beigels.
The all-night bakery is popular with east London’s cab trade, some of whom were visibly shaken when told of the killings.
“Oh, my God—I’m genuinely shocked,” cabbie Joe Marribel told the East London Advertiser.
“I come here every night and they are a really nice family. Joshua is the youngest. All the cab drivers will be quite shocked.”
The family is in mourning this week in Golders Green’s shocked Jewish community, while staff manage the shop, following the Sabbath night killings.
The news was greeted with despair down ‘The Lane’ among regulars in this famously traditional narrow and crowded shopping thoroughfare off Bethnal Green Road that runs down to Whitechapel.
Statistician Marcus September, 45, originally from Mile End who knew the Cohen family well, said: “I heard about a mother and daughter killed in Golders Green—but didn’t know it was them.
“It brings it home when it’s someone you know in a place you frequent like Brick Lane. That is shocking, very sad.”
Other traders were surprised about the north London stabbings involving the family known in the East End since the 1960s.
Fashion designer Adam Frost, 24, two doors down from Beigel Bake, said: “People must be freaked out. It’s really sad to think they’ve been killed. I don’t know what’s wrong with the world.”
Oliver Cargill, who runs an artists’ cooperative in Allen Gardens nearby, said: “This is sad news, absolutely shocking. I come here every day. I’m saddened.”
Retired taxi-driver John Thompson, 70, said: “I’m shocked to hear they were killed—they’ve been in the business for years and were very friendly. It’s like the end of a tradition.”
Joshua Cohen was charged with murdering his mother and sister after being arrested on Saturday at Golders Hill Park, next to Hampstead Heath, following a police appeal. He appeared before Hendon magistrates yesterday when he was remanded in custody to the Old Bailey.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here