The address in Notting Hill is one of the most notorious in the country.

In the 1950s, crowds would gather outside to stare in morbid fascination at 10 Rillington Place.

It was the home of serial killer John Christie , and where many of his victims were discovered in a kitchen alcove and buried in the garden.

Despite the passing of decades the name of the murderer or his address has always remained part of the national psyche .

And now its notoriety will be given a new lease of life with the new BBC three-part drama Rillington Place, which starts on Tuesday (November 29).

It will explore the crimes of Christie and the subsequent miscarriage which saw an innocent man hang for his murders, leading to the eventual abolition of capital punishment in the UK in 1965.

John Christie, the serial killer who murdered and hid his victims at his home address in Rillington Place

Packed with a stellar cast including Tim Roth as Christie, and Samantha Morton, who plays his wife Ethel, Rillington Place recreates the murderer’s cruel crimes from three different perspectives.

But it is not the first dramatisation of the horrific crimes. The 1970 film 10 Rillington Place starred Richard Attenborough as John Christie and John Hurt as Timothy Evans, and has achieved cult status.

Christie was born in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1899. He served in the First World War , then embarked on a career of theft and assault, leading to several stretches in prison.

Christie’s speech had been affected by a mustard gas explosion in the war, and he had lifelong erectile dysfunction, accompanied by violent sexual urges, leading him to visit prostitutes. He continued these visits after his marriage in 1920.

Police standing guard outside 10 Rillington Place on March 1953, soon after the grim discovery of bodies was made

Christie is thought to have murdered at least eight women by strangling them at 10 Rillington Place, including his wife, between 1943 and 1953. Many victims were raped first.

Among his victims were Beryl Evans and her baby daughter Geraldine. Mrs Evans had moved into the top floor flat in Rillington Place in Easter 1948 with her husband Timothy, before their daughter was born in October that year.

Late in 1949, Mr Evans told police his wife and child had died. At first he claimed that Christie had killed his wife in a botched abortion operation - because that was what Christie had told him.

But under intense police questioning he later confessed, before withdrawing the admission and again accused Christie.

Police digging up the rear garden at 10 Rillington Place

During the trial into the baby’s murder, Christie was a principal witness for the Crown and gave evidence denying Evans’ accusations. He was found guilty and hanged on March 9 1950. He has since been posthumously pardoned.

Christie’s crimes were eventually exposed when he moved out of 10 Rillington Place in March 1953. A new tenant discovered the bodies hidden in a wallpapered-over coal cellar in the kitchen.

Tests on his victims’ remains showed Christie strangled them after he had rendered them unconscious with domestic gas; often raping them before killing them. Several of them were prostitutes.

A nationwide manhunt ensued while Christie wandering all over London, sleeping on park benches at night.

Timothy Evans, who wrongly hung for the murders committed by John Christie, arrives at Paddington with two detectives

The search ended on the morning of March 31, when he was arrested near the embankment at Putney Bridge after being challenged about his identity by a policeman.

Christie was found guilty of the murders he confessed to in June 1953 (he never admitted to killing Geraldine Evans), and was hanged at Pentonville Prison in north London, on the same gallows as Timothy Evans, on 15 July 1953.

In the years after, crowds would line up to stare at 10 Rillington Place, but it was demolished in 1970 during the local council’s slum removal works and the street was renamed Ruston Close.

The first episode will be shown on BBC One, Tuesday (November 29) at 9pm. The next two episodes will be shown over the following two Tuesday evenings.

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!