Jack the Ripper Tour

We decided to experience some of what the East End had to offer one cold Saturday evening. We went to The Water Poet pub for a quiet drink and a meal. It’s quite surreal being in this area on the weekend as a lot of the bars and shops are closed because all the office buildings are empty. The pub was very cool, lots of random furniture and rooms and nice food.

We then headed to Tower Hill to meet our guide for the Jack the Ripper Tour. We weren’t the only ones to have this idea as there were about 70 people there in total. We took the opportunity of getting there early to get some night shots of some famous London landmarks like the Tower of London and the London Bridge.

We met our guide who started us on our tour by the London Wall, which was built in 200AD by the Romans and as you can see some of it’s still standing! 

The guide was full of interesting tidbits, the most amazing being the number of prostitutes in 1888 numbering over 40,000 to service 1 million people and in 2010 there were just over 4,000 to service 8 million!!! The guide described all 5 victims and their last movements before they were murdered and we visited a number of locations such as the Prostitutes church, and the pub where they used to frequent. 

We also learnt a lot about who they thought Jack the Ripper was, it’s amazing that he was never found. There are a few theories but none seem to fit the bill. We found out that the FBI had run an extensive investigation into the case including criminal profiling, it’s quite amazing considering that he only killed 5 people, not much compared to the serial killers of today. 

The tour ended with the guide showing us the apartment building where Jack's 4th victim was found lying outside the door, see below.

Highlight: Seeing all the places where the events actually took place.

Lowlight: The weather - it was cold

Interesting fact: The police at one stage were literally only minutes behind the killer, but the East End’s dark narrow lanes and alleyways facilitated his escape.

Hamish with his best Jack the Ripper face