Suspicious about the Ripper Walk I took...

[Justin]

Good point, Stewart - I can only think of Wood's Buildings, which was with us til '04 and MIGHT have been a Buck's Row escape, but that's all...those gates don't make Durward St. any harder to find.

[Mike Covell]

Bulldog - if I didn't do Ripper tours I'd have to work for a living? What, you mean the four other paid jobs I do, plus writing, plus emcee-ing for both The Ghost Club and The WS1888?

And the brief guest appearance in Will Storrs "Will Storr VS the Supernatural".
The chapter makes you sound like Don Corleone!!

[Monty]

Philip,

Pedantic? Oooof! Seriously, Im flattered that you used it in the book also. However, it must be said that the quote isnt mine so I cant really complain.

Yes, you are right, Watkins had 3 valid reasons to enter that corner.

1. The empty cottages.

2. The Coal hole covers/areas.

3. The gate of Heydemanns yard.


Stewart,

George Yard Buildings would have been the most difficult to identify. I know Gunthorpe St runs off Whitechapel High Street but identifying the actual location must have been difficult without some sort of guidance wouldnt it?

Cheers

Monty

[Stewart P Evans]

Wood's Buildings

Good point, Stewart - I can only think of Wood's Buildings, which was with us til '04 and MIGHT have been a Buck's Row escape, but that's all...those gates don't make Durward St. any harder to find.

But Wood's Buildings were there in 1888; there, and open, in 1967; and there today but, I believe, closed off.

[Stewart P Evans]

George Yard Buildings

Stewart,
George Yard Buildings would have been the most difficult to identify. I know Gunthorpe St runs off Whitechapel High Street but identifying the actual location must have been difficult without some sort of guidance wouldnt it?
Cheers
Monty

I thought that access was the relevant point here, however in 1967 I correctly identified George Yard Buildings from the photograph in Robin Odell's book, Jack the Ripper In Fact and Fiction.

[Monty]

I was merely curious, as I struggled to located them when I first visited.

Monty

[Mike Covell]

But Wood's Buildings were there in 1888; there, and open, in 1967; and there today but, I believe, closed off.

Sadly it has a large padlock across the gate on the Whitechapel High Street end. I was put off by even looking from the Winthrop Street end, and continued on without taking any pictures.

[Stewart P Evans]

But surely...

I was merely curious, as I struggled to located them when I first visited.
Monty

But, surely, George Yard Buildings were long gone when you first visited? They were still there and the same as in 1888 when I first visited in August 1967, that made them a lot easier to locate!

[Monty]

But, surely, George Yard Buildings were long gone when you first visited? They were still there and the same as in 1888 when I first visited in August 1967, that made them a lot easier to locate!

Exactly, hence the struggle,

There is a wall that still remians though.

Monty

[George Hutchinson]

Hi all.

Maybe this is being assessed out of context. If someone had maps, old and new, then locating sites should not be an issue and I agree with SPE on that one. It's difficult for me to comment without bias as I guess I have been at most of the locations probably more than most of the posters here combined. I have a feeling I didn't have any issues finding the places when I first went (though Fido's audio guide was explicit in direction albeit erroneous in exact location!). None of them are hard to find - if you know where you're going. If you're working on the 1888 names and you just expect them to turn up as you walk down the arterial routes, you might get into trouble. The loss of many of the old alleyways - except for Dutfields Yard and Miller's Court, of course - is not particularly relevant but may disorient someone who could be working from purely an old text or map.

Stewart, regarding your post above listing the unlikely difficulty in locating streets, I guess you've never actually met a certain little moustachiod Nazi conspiracist and fantasist, have you?

Justin - I wasn't taking personal offence at your post, so don't worry about that. However, to push the envelope further, I take pride in taking my tourists to the exact spots and not a street nearby. Thus I don't go to Parliament Court but I DO go to Hanbury Street. However, as it is never any later than 8:30pm when I'm there and I'm on the other side of the road, muffled by 30 people, it's not an issue for the residents. Unlike those pillocks who wear amplifiers and headset microphones for talking to six people! Last week I had actually stopped at the site of GYB after telling the group about Tabram further down the road in a comapny car park. My spiel on the spot is : "So, the archway was here... it entered into a small passage here, the stairs began at the side at the end, curved back and Martha Tabram died... here". That's all I say there. Short and sweet. I got up to the word "entered" on a daytime school tour last week and some miserable, rude woman stuck her head out of a nearby office window and shouted at me to clear off as I was disturbing her work! I tried to reason with the old bag but she was just Hell-bent on being rude and intrusive, so I walked up to my group and said it all quietly, pointing at the places in question instead of going to them and kept making extremely insulting comments about said old bag, ending with a flourish of the two-fingered salute at the open window as we left. I seriously considered passing by the window again on the way home, throwing some rubbish in, and legging it round the corner (which would have been easy). So you see, sometimes the workers here are the tossers.

PHILIP

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

Again - it is NOT the murder sites that are difficult to locate (i find them pretty easy) but to find your way around in general.
My big problem is Commercial Street, because for some reason the important landmarks (Ten Bells, Princess Alice etc) always end up on the 'wrong' sides of the road than I expect them to. I never seem to be able to get the hang of it.
I can dig my way through the small alleys around Artillery Passage without any problem, but as soon as I use the big thoroughfare Commercial Street for any excursion elsewhere, I immediately get lost. Unfortunately, using a map only seems to add further to the confusion, in spite of being well known in my circuits for being a very good map reader.

I also want to add that I NEVER have any problems with geographical directions. I usually am very good at finding my way around in places I've never been to before, and I practically never get lost. The first time I have ever experienced this problem is in East End. It's like bloody Twilight Zone.

All the best

[Glenn Lauritz Andersson]

If I was the killer, I would probably - while attempting to escape - end back on the murder site and fall into the arms of the police.

[Bulldog]

Also, if there were no Ripper walks, then some very nice people like Philip Hutchinson and Don Rumbelow would have to work for a living. (Oops - sorry Guys).

Philip,

I was kidding -- but I suspect that you know that.

Bulldog

[Justin]

Further to Philip and his old bag:

Well done! And you make a fair point -- hoodies and tramps have never given me trouble in the area, but I can't say the same for City boys...

[Suzi]

Cooooooooooooooo Frip! would love to have seen that!!!! What you needed was 'The Cat' on a rather large length of elastic bearing a sign saying 'P*** off saddo' sent window-wards- On retrieval shoved him under the waistcoat and carried on up the street with a happy smile and a song!!!!