Marys room

[mike74]

Just wondering how many people lived in number 13 in the years following the murder up until dorset street was demolished?, wonder if it was re- painted?

[tnb]

Fiona Rule's 'the Worst Street in London' deals with Miller's Court, and Mary's landlord Jack McCarthy, in a lot of detail, and is an excellent book in many respects. The picture it paints of Spitalfields from it's now barely imaginable beginnings as the rural (ho)spital fields beyond the City walls to JTR and beyond, is to my mind unrivalled.

I don't think Rule gives the EXACT number of residents of 13 MC after Mary Kelly, but she does give the shocking detail that McCarthy not only rerented it a matter of weeks later but not only did he not bother repainting it but he didn't even wash the bloodstains from the walls! Although in his defence he at least refused permission to a man who turned up in the immediate days after the murder and offered him a large sum of money to rent out number 13 to him (complete with furniture) in order to create an 'exhibition'!

There was another murder in Miller's Court a few years later in the number of the room in which Prater was staying (directly above Kelly); although there is some controversy about whether the rooms were renumbered following 1888 - whether this was due to respect for Kelly (if it was done at all) or simply practicality is unclear; the latter possibility appears to be borne out by subsequent censuses, where the number of 'rooms' in Miller's Court suddenly expands. Apparently the bottom floor of one of the houses, both owned by McCarthy but not lived in, was in 1888 used as storage, but there is speculation this went on to become an extension to Miller's Court.

There are some fascinating pictures of the demolition of Dorset St (by then, briefly, Durward St) which show the back yards of 22 and 23 (where Miller's Court was situated) on here somewhere, if you're interested.