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HD video footage Whitechapel (august 2014)

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  • HD video footage Whitechapel (august 2014)

    Afternoon all,

    Longish post ahead, so apologies in advance. Here's a link to the footage should you wish to avoid the long haul: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLA...R1gqTLisvFDhDA

    For those still here...I've been a lurker on here for seven years, mainly because I thought I had little to add that wasn't being said by others more eloquently and usefully. I now though have something (maybe) useful to contribute.

    On aug26/27 this year I took a camera around some of the key locations in the case, partly to work out how to use the camera and editing package, partly out of interest. I've always been interested in the geographical aspect, the buildings and streets, how the sites are linked in space and time between them. I'm the kind of person who gets mildly excited by seeing stone lintels above doors with dates of construction on them (don't ask, I can't explain). The first time I visited Whitechapel was about sixteen years ago, and the sheer compactness and close proximity of sites really struck me. I thought this would be a useful set of footage for people unable to visit themselves (not so much for people familiar with the area, but knock yourself out).

    A few notes...

    1) Footage was shot on a chest mounted GoPro 3+ in HD, hence the bouncy camera. On youtube, you may have to adjust the setting in the bottom of the picture, it looks like a little wheel, but it is in 1080 glorious detail.

    2) I've assumed a moderate level of knowledge of the case

    3) Feel free to turn my voice off. I thought it would be useful for some people, so I dubbed over (being lazy, just used the mac's microphone which makes it sound echoey). Plus, I had a bad cold when I recorded the overdubs...

    4) Each video is annotated to show particular sights. There was no useful ambient sound I'm afraid; the camera i amounted in a waterproof housing, so it was just clicky noises of the harness moving that was recorded.

    5) This is in no way intended to replace tours. By far the best approach is to visit yourself (not least because the camera has the effect of making things appear more distant than they are). For those unable to go or simply planning, the vids may be of use.

    6) I used the georeferenced OS maps and Goad's Fire Insurance maps to locate sites. I am quite possibly incorrect on some, and if it bothers you enough please tell me and I may go back and correct it (depending on how pedantic it is..)

    7) I've mainly used modern street names so people can compare and put the 1888 name in brackets, but not always. If it bothers you, well, see point 6.

    8) My babblings should not be taken as being for/against any suspects: the suspects who lived in the area obviously have more references (Levy, Kosminski, Hyams for example, read nothing more into it than location).

    9) I haven't made a big deal of the murder sites (nothing wrong with that, but I wanted to get a sense of geography). Houses, witness sightings and police beats are a lll highlighted or mentioned too.

    10) Apart from 1 clip (a small section of Buck's Row to Hanbury St) all clips are in real time. I estimate I covered between 100-120 m (or yards) each minute at my pace.

    11) I have undoubtedly made some errors, I'm sure I referred to Commercial Street as Commercial Road at one point, and forgot to highlight Schwarz's house. I will be blamed for something.

    12) The order was simply the order they were shot, so number 1 does not deal with chronological events for example. There is a brief description of the roads taken with each video.

    13) Any thoughts or improvements, please share.


    Thoughts from the exercise:
    Physically experiencing the space is important. Around Mitre Sq and Berner Street for example, realising how close the witnesses and events were helps understand how incredibly lucky the murderer was not to be seen or caught with that many people around. The police beats must have left hardly any time (assuming the police were truthful in their timings...). The tightness of space does make me question the geoprofiling approach- while I ascribe to the theory JTR was local, I would like to know how useful the geoprofiling is in small areas, that is when a criminal's ability to travel long distances is limited.
    Finally, i couldn't pin down the 'Church Street' where witness Mrs Long lived. It makes a difference to why she was walking east along Hanbury street at that time. I thought she may have been referring to the far end of Hanbury Street, which might make more sense. Please correct me if you know better.

    H

  • #2
    Some good footage there Hakeswill

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    • #3
      That section of Wheler Street in the first video is now called Braithwaite Street. The name was changed by Transport for London when the new station opened a few years ago. Named after the man who designed and built the arches in about 1840.

      The setts under the railway arch were covered over with asphalt until the new Shoreditch station opened. I was working there and after seeing a small patch of the setts and how well laid they were, I had all the asphalt between the gates removed and any missing setts, due to stats companies, were replaced.

      Sir William Wheler was a local landowner and MP and that road pre-dates the railway station by about 190 years. Sir William Wheler was also the man who developed Hanbury and Lamb Streets.

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      • #4
        It's this kind of detail I find interesting, thanks. I also found out what 'setts' where, after a quick search. Would all of the roads circa 1888 been of similar style with setts (or cobbles etc)? Any ideas about kerbs, pavements, drains and so on?

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Hakeswill View Post
          It's this kind of detail I find interesting, thanks. I also found out what 'setts' where, after a quick search. Would all of the roads circa 1888 been of similar style with setts (or cobbles etc)? Any ideas about kerbs, pavements, drains and so on?
          I have found that generally in the east end, old (AND new) kerb stones are granite, usually about 6 inches to a foot wide and a foot deep (with half of that depth under the road level). They last forever and can be re-used unless totally shattered.

          Granite setts were good for horse drawn traffic, not so good for heavy motorised vehicles although there was a time when wooden blocks were preferred, you still see them occasionally. Oddly, the wooden blocks were mostly imported from abroad, even in victorian times.

          The main sewers are usually unchanged, they were very well built, the road gullies connecting them are mostly pre-cast concrete nowadays, older ones are brick built on a concrete or stone base, lined with cement.

          These pictures are from the resurfacing of Back Church Lane, you can see it's had the asphalt planed off (40mm) showing that the road is setts underneath. It's very hard to spot but an old sewer cover and a sewer vent were discovered that had been covered over by the last surfacers (probably over 60 years ago). I have put the pictures in order to show it gradually showing up to the eye. I wouldn't fancy being trapped down the sewer and thinking that was an escape route.





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          • #6
            Limited to 5 pics per post so here is the hidden sewer vent and then the actual vent after we removed it for resetting to its new height.

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            • #7
              Just as an added picture. Old cellar discovered just across the road to the fish and chip shop in Goulston Street when we were putting the gates in and raising the carriageway levels.

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              • #8
                Thanks for posting the pics. Did you get the all to all these sites by luck of the draw or did you engineer (pun intended) it that way? And on a technical note, how do you remove the asphalt layer?

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                • #9
                  Luck of the draw. I'm digging up Wentworth Street next year.

                  The asphalt is removed by a giant toothed planing machine that looks like the Loch Ness monster. The teeth blunt quickly when there are setts underneath the asphalt so have to be chhanged every so often as the work progresses.


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                  • #10
                    I think the Mitre Square setts were removed at some point (photographs don't match with the current arrangement). They seem to have been replaced by something similar though. Can you shed any light on that?

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                    • #11
                      What is the thing resembling a giant pair of gonads dangling from the back of that machine?
                      Never believe anything until it has been officially denied.

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Simon Wood View Post
                        What is the thing resembling a giant pair of gonads dangling from the back of that machine?
                        That 'is' a pair of rubber gonads. But if I get asked about them by a councillor I will look him squarely in the eye and say they are a form of plumb bob to ensure the cross falls of the surfacing are constant. Then I will leave quickly before he asks me anything else.

                        They jig about when the machine rattles along, most disconcerting it is too. Surfacing gangs are quite odd people with warped senses of humour. I think it's all those bitumen fumes they breathe in and the strange hours they work.

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