JACK THE RIPPER TOURS
WELCOME TO THE NIGHTMARE.
NO HYPE. NO FALSE CLAIMS.
JUST A STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO OUR JACK THE RIPPER TOUR.
We honestly believe that our combination of expert
guides, a carefully planned and atmospheric route, together
with the exclusive Victorian
photographs that we show you, help make ours one of the best of all the Jack the
Ripper Tours. We believe in our tour and we
believe in the
route that it takes. To prove how atmospheric and comprehensive it is we will take
you step by step around our tour route here and now on our website.
Below you will see photographs of each stop on our Jack the Ripper tour and you will be able to read why each destination is significant to the story. We hope that this will help you to make an informed decision by seeing for yourselves the places that you will visit if you decide to join our tour.
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FOLLOW US NOW AS WE ENTER THE LABYRINTH
As the East End Shadows lengthen and the night grows darker our world famous Jack the Ripper tour sets off into the crooked, cobbled alleyways of Whitechapel and Spitalfields to hunt the killer who in 1888 brought terror and panic to these very streets.
TO BEGIN WITH
From the
start of your evening you will find yourself exploring places that have changed
very little since those long ago nights when this entire neighbourhood was
gripped by fear as the ripper's reign of terror gained momentum and the police
fought a desperate battle to hunt him down before he killed again. We
start
our Jack the Ripper tour at Aldgate East Underground Station because it is at
the very heart of the murder territory. The first thing we will do is pass
around a photograph of the view from our starting point that was taken in 1890.
It shows the direction you will be heading in and helps you build up a mental
image of what Whitechapel High Street (where our tour begins) looked like just
after the Jack the Ripper murders had occurred. The people you see walking along
the thoroughfare that you are about to walk along were the people who actually
lived through the autumn of terror and, who knows, one of them may even have
been Jack the Ripper himself! You will see the spire of St Mary's church in the
distance. This building was lime-washed in the Middle Ages and was thus the
"White Chapel" that gave its name to the area.
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OUR FIRST STOP
Within
seconds of the
start of your tour you will have turned beneath
a sinister arch and
an even
more sinister alleyway will stretch
before
you. You will be following in the footsteps of Martha Tabram who on the 7th
August
1888
led a stranger under
this very arch, walked along this cobbled
thoroughfare, and was never
seen alive again. In the early hours of that same morning her body was
discovered further along the alleyway. We take you to the site of her murder and
present you with the evidence for and against her having being the first victim
of Jack the Riper.
To give you something of an idea of just how atmospheric this old alleyway is, just take a look at the photographs on the left and right right. The one on the right shows the pub that you pass as you turn under the arch (a pub incidentally where one of the leading suspects worked for a time, and we'll tell you who he was and why he was suspected); the one on the left shows the alleyway into which you will pass and you really will feel as if you've stepped back in time as you walk along the very cobbles that Martha and her murderer passed over in the early hours of that long ago morning. As one member of our tour recently put it "it seemed as though I had stepped onto a movie set, but then I realised with a shudder that I was actually following in the footsteps of Martha Tabram to the actual spot where her murder occurred, and that really did send a shiver down my spine."
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OUR SECOND STOP
We next make our way round to Osborne Street. In 1888 this was an extremely sinister place and it was here in the early hours of April 3rd 1888 that a lady named Emma Smith was attacked by a gang of youths. Her injuries were so severe that she died of them the next morning.
Emma
Smith probably wasn't a victim of Jack the Ripper. But her death was significant
in that in the aftermath of her killing the police opened their file on the
Whitechapel Murders, a file that by the end of the year would also include the
acknowledged victims of Jack the Ripper. Osborne Street, however, does feature
in the story of Mary Nichols who was murdered in the early hours of August 31st
1888 and who is now widely regarded as being the first definite victim of Jack
the Ripper. A friend of hers, Emily Holland, met her outside a shop on Osborne
Street around an hour and twenty minutes before her body was discovered
about half a mile away in Bucks Row. We stand on the corner where a very drunk
Mary Nichols refused her friends pleas to come home with her, and from which she
staggered off into the night and into the arms the ripper. We pass around
another of our exclusive Victorian photographs (you can see a reduced image of
it to the right) showing this corner as it was in 1888.
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OUR NEXT STOP
We
stroll along Brick Lane, a colourful and vibrant street that is lined by some of
the best Indian Restaurants in London. Pausing at its junction with Thrawl
Street we show a photograph of Thrawl Street as it was in 1888 when it was
renowned as one of the worst streets in London. It was at a lodging house in
Thrawl Street that Mary Nichols was living at the time of her murder. Indeed she
was ejected from the premises because she didn't have the necessary four pence
to pay for her bed for the night. It didn't go un-noticed by the newspapers at
the time that Mary Nichols was slain for the sake of just four pence. Mary seems
to have obtained some money (probably by resorting to prostitution) but she
drank it away in the Frying Pan Pub. This pub still stands, although it is now an Indian Restaurant.
But
you will be asked to look up at its top storey, and there in brick relief you
will see two crossed Frying Pans and its original Victorian name "Ye Frying
Pan." How's that for a time capsule?
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ONWARDS AND FORWARDS
Now
our tour enters a truly magical enclave of old buildings and
ancient streets that really have survived the ages. The houses that you are
about to pass were built for the Huguenot master silk weavers in the 18th
century. But before we reach them we pass a magnificent structure that stands at
the junction of Brick Lane and Fournier Street. Built in the 1740's as a
Huguenot chapel and schoolroom, it became a Methodist Chapel in the early 19th
century; a Synagogue in the 1890's; and a Mosque in the 1970's. It really does
reflect the changing demographics that have helped make this area such a rich
and culturally diverse neighbourhood. It stands on the threshold of a knot of
streets that still possess the ambience of the 18th and 19th centuries. As
mentioned earlier these houses were built in the 18th century for the Huguenot
master silk weavers. Every one of them still has the high attic windows that
provided the light for the workshops in which these weavers laboured. But in the
mid-19th century the government of the day opened up the weaving trade to cheap
foreign imports. The Huguenots found their business devastated and, as a
consequence, they began to move out. Slum landlords then took over the
properties and turned them into either common lodging houses or slum properties.
They thus provided the back cloth against which the Jack the Ripper saga was
played out. In the last twenty or so years these houses have been
re-discovered and gentrified, and many of them have been restored to their 18th
century splendour. Your walk through these streets will be truly memorable and
in winter months the smell of wood fires burning in the grates of these stunning
properties will further fuel the feeling that you have stepped into
a bygone age.
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PRINCELET STREET'S FILM HOUSE
Having
enjoyed
some of the East End's most remarkable houses your Jack the Ripper
tour
continues along Wilkes Street. Once again the buildings have survived more or
less intact and really do pitch you back to that long ago era when terror
stalked the night and the people who lived here walked in fear. We pass Puma
Court, which in 1888 was known as Red Lion Court, and which typifies the narrow
alleyways and dark passageways that riddled the district in 1888. It was to
places like this that the Victorian prostitutes would lead their clients and in
so doing made it possible for a lone assassin, such as Jack the Ripper, to murder them
and then melt away unseen in to the night. Having illustrated this point we then pause at the junction of Princelet
Street to gaze upon an 18th century house that you may have seen
many times before, even if this is your first trip to the East End of
London. The
house's owners derive a handsome income from letting their home out to film
companies. Documentaries, costume-dramas, major movies, as well as programmes about Jack the Ripper
have all been shot at this wonderful old house and, as you can see from the
above photo on the right, it really does possess the ambience of a long
ago age.
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WE VISIT THE SECOND JACK THE RIPPER MURDER SITE.
At around
5.30am on the morning of September 8th 1888 Mrs Elizabeth Long turned into
Hanbury Street - one street along
from
Princelet Street - and saw Annie Chapman standing outside number 29
talking
to a man. Mrs Long later told the coroner that it was not unusual to see couples
talking on the street at such an early hour and so, finding nothing suspicious
about this particular couple, she passed them by and continued on her way to
nearby Spitalfields Market.
Thirty
minutes later John Davis, an elderly resident of number 29 Hanbury Street, came
down the stairs, walked along the passage and opened the back door. He saw a
sight that
sent
him reeling back in horror. Staggering through the passage he threw open the
front door and fell into the street where he called three labourers to his
assistance. The men followed him through the house, looked out of the door and
gazed down onto the horrifically mutilated body of Annie Chapman.
The south side of Hanbury Street is much as it was in 1888, and we point out the significant buildings that have survived. The north side of the street, which included the murder site, was demolished in the late 1960's and has now been replaced by a rather unsightly brewery building. But we show you photographs of Hanbury street as it was and of number 29 itself, including a rare one of the actual staircase down which John Davis came to make his grisly discovery. We also discuss the riots that this murder caused as the mob went on the rampage seeking scapegoats to blame for the atrocity.
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AND NOW FOR AN EXCLUSIVE.
OURS IS THE ONLY JACK THE RIPPER TOUR THAT VISITS THE POLICE STATION WHERE THE OFFICERS WERE BASED WHO INVESTIGATED THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS.
We want to
get you as close to the actual police investigation as possible, so with our
tour not only will you stand on more of the actual murder sites than on any
other Jack the Ripper Walk and ponder the evidence, just as those long ago
officers did, but you will also be taken to view the police station to where
those officers
were
based. It's part of our commitment to offering you the most complete and
comprehensive Jack the Ripper Tour available. Here were based the likes of
Inspectors Walter Dew and Walter Beck, the two officers who came racing from the
station to the scene of Mary Kelly's murder. Here was based Inspector Edmund
Reid, the head of the local detective department and one of the main
investigators into the Jack the Ripper killings. It was to this police station
that John Davis came at around 6.15am on the 8th September 1888, to blurt out
the news of his horrific discovery in nearby Hanbury Street. Indeed, here were
stationed the officers whose duty it was to police one of the most crime-ridden
quarters of the Victorian Metropolis. They knew the victims of Jack the Ripper
at least by sight if not by name, and they were forced to watch helplessly as
the unknown killer struck in their midst time and time again. Seeing the
station, with its stone sign crumbling above its doorway, really does make for a
chilling moment.
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NEXT, WE WELL AND TRULY SPIRIT YOU BACK IN TIME.
Walking back along Commercial Street we pause outside Christchurch Spitalfields.
This soaring edifice of gleaming white
stone
still dominates its surroundings just as it did in 1888. Every one of Jack
the
Ripper's victims, every one of the police officers who investigated the case,
every one of the local residents, and even, possibly, Jack the Ripper himself
would have gazed up at this prominent local landmark on an almost daily basis.
It really is a silent witness to that long ago autumn of fear, panic and
despair. Opposite stands the Ten Bells Pub, just as it did in 1888. Across from
the pub is Spitalfields Market, which opened in 1887 and was barely a year old
when the Jack the Ripper scare was at its height. We will show you a photograph
of the spot on which you are standing taken a little after the murders. You will
see both the Ten Bells and Spitalfields Market as they looked then. You will see
the horse drawn carts and carriages jostling with each other to force
their way along what was then a bustling and crowded thoroughfare. You will be
shown the, now demolished, Britannia Pub which stood on the corner of Dorset
Street, "the Worst Street in London" according to the Daily Mail. It was
here that Mary Kelly, the last victim of Jack the Ripper lived, and you will
picture her walking past the church in the early hours of the morning of the 9th
of November 1888, and meeting with a labourer whom she asked for a "tanner"
(sixpence). On learning he had no money she observed, "well I'll just have to
find it some other way then, won't I ?' The labourer watched her move off along
Commercial Street, saw her meet with a man, watched them laughing together, and
then he followed the couple as Mary Kelly led the stranger to Dorset Street. You
will follow in their footsteps from Commercial Street to Miller's Court, the
place where Mary Kelly rented a ground floor room and the place where her body
was discovered later that day.
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JACK THE RIPPER'S MOST GRUESOME MURDER
Mary Kelly
lived in Miller's Court, off Dorset Street. Dorset Street was long ago pulled
down and an unsightly car park and
ugly industrial units now line what remains of it. But to help you get the feel
of
what
this notorious East End street was like your guide will pass around a photograph
of it taken in 1902 for Jack London's book The people of the Abyss. You
will see that the houses along the left hand side of the street have lamps
outside them. Each one of these was a Common Lodging House where as many as 260
men, women and children bedded down each night. Here you begin to realise how
the sheer overcrowding in the neighbourhood made it an utterly thankless task
for the police to try and hunt down one homicidal maniac in an area that was
bursting at the seams with unsavoury criminals, many of whom were capable of
equally despicable acts of violent crime. It was under one of these lamps that
the aforementioned witness stood and watched Mary Kelly lead the stranger
through the arch and into Miller's Court. Although the court was demolished in
the 1920's, your guide will show you a photograph of it taken just before the
developers moved in. As the picture circulates, your guide will point out that,
although Miller's Court itself has long since vanished, the width of its
entrance, the very threshold over which Mary Kelly stepped with the stranger, is
still there. Using the photograph you will be able to gaze down at that entrance
and see for yourself exactly what it looked like. You may even find yourself
picturing Mary Kelly crossing this very spot in the company of her killer
unaware of the horrendous fate that awaits her. This section of the tour really
does send a shiver of anticipation around the Jack the Ripper Tour groups and
the participants often huddle closer at this point.
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JACK THE RIPPER'S ONLY CLUE
One of the
main problems faced by the police in their hunt for Jack the Ripper was that the
killer left no clues behind at the scenes of his murders. Their problems were
compounded by the fact that the murderer was not known to his victims. He simply
struck in the dead of night in out
of the way places and then just melted away into the night. As Dr Robert
Anderson, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Criminal Investigation
Department, and one of the highest ranking officers on the case put it "for one
murder to occur where the killer leaves no clues behind is unusual, but for a
series of crimes to occur where the killer leaves no clues behind is unheard
of." Yet this is exactly what Jack the Ripper was doing. Except, that is, on the
30th September 1888 when, having murdered Catherine Eddowes in Mitre Square, the
killer left behind his one and only clue in a doorway on nearby Goulston Street.
We visit that doorway and discuss the significance of the clue. We also point
out the wall on which a sinister message was scrawled and reveal who it was that
the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Charles Warren, was protecting when he
ordered the message to be erased before a photograph of it could be taken. We
will quote Sir Charles Warren's own words as to his reasons for ordering the
destruction of what another high ranking officer believed was a hugely important
clue.
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THE NIGHT OF THE DOUBLE MURDER.
The 30th
of September was a hugely significant date in the hunt for Jack the Ripper. It
was in the early hours of the morning
that
Elizabeth Stride, Jack the Ripper's third victim, was murdered in Berner
Street;
and Catherine Eddowes, Jack the Ripper's fourth victim, was butchered in Mitre
Square. As a result the 30th September quickly became known as "the night of the
double murder" or the "double event." We pause on the threshold of the City of
London and show you a photograph of Berner Street as it was in 1888. We point
out exactly where the murder site was on the photo and tell of an extremely
important witness
who may well have seen the early stages of Elizabeth Stride's murder. The tour
then crosses into the City of London and passes the site on Aldgate High Street
where an extremely drunk Catherine Eddowes was arrested on the night of
the 29th September. We pass another wonderful old church that in 1888 was known
as "Prostitute Island" for reasons we'll reveal as we stand alongside it. From
there we make our way into Mitre Square via the passage outside which Catherine
was seen chatting with a man by three witnesses. Fifteen minutes later, in what
the attending doctor described as being "the darkest corner of Mitre Square,"
beat officer PC Watkins of the City Police discovered her horribly mutilated
body. You will stand on the exact spot where that discovery was made and hear of
the frenzied police activity in the immediate aftermath. We will show you old
photographs of the square showing how it looked from all angles and point out
Jack the Ripper's probable escape route from the scene of his crime.
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Finally,
we
spend five or so minutes pulling together all the fascinating threads of the
mystery and reveal to you who the two leading officers on the case appear to
have believed the killer was. You will learn the probable reason why the police
didn't make their suspicions public, and will be told the likely fate that
befell Jack the Ripper.
Your guide will then escort you the little distance to Aldgate Underground Station where, safely ensconced on the train, you will be able to sit back and ponder the incredible story that has been played out before you in a little under two hours. You will be able to think back on the hidden alleyways and cobblestone streets through which you journeyed. But, above all else, you will now know the facts, the true facts, and only the true facts about a case that has baffled crime historians for over a hundred years, and which will have provided a window through which you will have gazed back onto a long ago autumn, when a lone figure prowled the very streets that you spent the night exploring, and really did succeed in shaking the British establishment to its very core.
So there you have it. A step by step account of our Jack the Ripper tour. Of course the commentary on this page is a fraction of what you will actually hear on the tour itself. You will, for example, see and peruse the letter from which Jack the Ripper gained his name. You will hear of the injuries suffered by the victims, and learn a great deal about the fascinating, if often sordid, history of the streets through which you will walk. You have seen on this page genuine photographs of the places that we feature on our tour, including several that other Jack the Ripper Tours don't go anywhere near. We have done this to show you that our tour is comprehensive and includes far more than the average Jack the Ripper Walk. So don't settle for anything less than the complete Jack the Ripper experience. An experience that, from the off, takes you into the streets, alleyways and passageways against which the story unfolded. This may be your only chance to investigate this fascinating subject up close and personal. So be sure that you join the experts to get the real story of the people and events that together add up to the greatest whodunit in history.
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THERE'S NO MORE TO BE SAID!