Pyrrolo [3, 2, 1-hi] indoles have been formed by the aldol cyclisation of 7-formyl-N- indolylacetates. The synthetic sequence incorporates three steps from suitably activated indoles: these are alkylation at nitrogen with a bromoacetic ester, formylation at C7 and an aldol condensation between these two substituents. An X-ray crystal structure of pyrrolo [3, 2, 1-hi] indole 24 is described.