This and That – Jack the Ripper and Her Majesty’s Requiem.

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Good morning from London!

It’s a bright sunny morning. I’m sitting in our hotel’s dining room, enjoying the passing parade of Londoners rushing off to work. I enjoyed my traditional English breakfast…minus the baked beans. (Big smile )

We’re off to Buckingham Palace this morning to see the massive floral tributes to the Queen. I’ve included Sam’s spot-on comments about our Ripper tour. Seeing the two taverns, and the old church, and knowing Jack and his victims saw these same buildings, caused a chill to run down my spine. Our guide was very knowledgeable but had little praise for Patricia Cornwell’s Ripper books. Oi Vey! Cheerio, dear friends.

Sam’s post: DAY TEN: LONDON (PART 2)

I decided to divide Saturday’s post into two parts since our evening activity was a Jack the Ripper Walking Tour…which doesn’t coexist peacefully with details of a Requiem Mass for the late Queen. 😉

Jack the Ripper is undoubtedly the best-known serial killer of all time. He terrorized the East End of London between 31 August and 9 November 1888. The grisly murders ceased after November 9, 1888, and he was never caught.

The Whitechapel section of London was the poorest of the poor at that time, and five women were brutally murdered, usually with their internal organs removed. These five women are known as the “Canonical Five” as their murders were definitely the work of Jack the Ripper. Authorities feel there could have been earlier victims; serial killers’ hallmarks are rarely fully formed when they first commit murders.

Almost all of Whitechapel today is unrecognizable from how it looked in the 1880s. Still, our excellent tour guide pointed out many things that would have been there when Jack the Ripper and his victims walked the dirty, dangerous, and poverty-stricken streets of Whitechapel.

(Originally posted September 12, 2022)

The beginning of the tour, with Angela explaining what we would see and how the tour would proceed. She recreated 1880s Whitechapel with her vivid details and interesting tidbits!

19th-century cobblestone street on which Jack the Ripper and his victims would have walked.
The Frying Pan…a pub that several victims were known to frequent. The building itself is completely changed, but the original building sign from Jack’s days remains. Both he and his victims would have seen this sign.
Brick Lane…one of the Whitechapel streets on which both the Ripper and his victims would have walked. The neighborhood is now heavily populated with people from Bangladesh, and Brick Lane is now famous for its many curry restaurants.

Christ Church, Spitalfields, was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who was the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral. This church is one of the few places that looks essentially the same as it did during the Ripper’s reign of terror in 1888. To the left of the church is a pub that pretty much looks the same as it did then. The church & the pub are really the only two places that have changed little since 1888.

The Ten Bells, a pub across the street from Christ Church, Spitalfields, was often frequented by Jack and his victims. Its exterior has changed very little from those days.
The door under the A to Z sign was once the entrance to an alley where one of the Ripper’s victims was found. The Ripper wrote a message on the wall inside the alleyway. The stonework above the A to Z sign was there when the murders occurred.
My delicious English breakfast.