Ripper tour

[claire]

Hi Claire

We've not had one since October 2007 and I think it's time we did. There was a murmuring of having one in December, though if it was the day of the WS1888 Xmas do, I couldn't make it as I have another engagement during the daytime.

PHILIP

And presumably the day after would be a multi-hair of the dog-stop affair! Whenever it is, I'm definitely keen.

[John Bennett]

It would appear that Philip and I are taking simultaneous private tours this evening...

Is nobody safe?

[Mike Covell]

I have arranged for a random drunk bloke to walk around Whitechapel this evening shouting "You know Naffink" at random tour guides!!

[Jeff Leahy]

I have arranged for a random drunk bloke to walk around Whitechapel this evening shouting "You know Naffink" at random tour guides!!

Ah yes , that would be Richard Jones

[John Bennett]

I had a guy last night who shouted 'YOU'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!!"

Needless to say, I made it home OK.

[Mike Covell]

Last night was just a practice run, he was meant to shout that outside some old peoples home but got his wires crossed!

[Veritas]

I will never forget my first Ripper walk on April 2, 1986. We met at the Whitechapel tube station and walked through Woods Buildings entrance to Durward Street. The guide was good but was pushing the Masons theory crap as if it was real. The tour company (no longer exists) was called Streets of London.

[John Bennett]

It seems that Durward Street/Woods buildings was a real gem for tours then, as people I know who aren't as location-nerdy as me say that that location was a real humdinger in terms of atmosphere and dodginess.

A friend of my mother was a big fan of Martin Fido's 'Murders after midnight' radio programme (she loved his voice) and went on his tour, back in the day.

[George Hutchinson]

John - she'd've gone off Martin's voice if she'd had to put up with his full drunken version of WIDDICOMBE FAIR. There's only five people who've heard this and we're all having counselling.

PHILIP

[John Bennett]

Ah, the joys of tour-guiding.

After having a particularly dour group on Friday, this evening's lot were really nice. One elderly (but spritely) gentleman had been to the murder sites in the 1960s and particularly remembers 29 Hanbury Street as being in a terrible state and that the south side of Dorset Street was being demolished.

He asked me if I ever visited No.29 - perhaps it was the grey hair in my beard that fooled him - and I had to tell him I was only 2 when they pulled it down.

[George Hutchinson]

^ Ha. Reminds me of a conversation I had when I was 21 with some middle-aged man who asked me if I also remembered, like him, when JOHNNY REMEMBER ME made it to #1 in the charts, which was 10 years before I was born.

Or one of my employees at the castle a few years back who was about two decades older than me who thought we were the same age. Thankfully, these are very few and far between so you can put it down to them being a bit mad.

I never get people on the tours who remember the sites, but I did have a couple on the tour a couple of nights back - he called himself a Ripperologist but had never heard of this site (though he had walked the murder sites loads of times by himself and I was ruining all his impressions of where the exact spots were), and she once lived in my home town and had done my ghost tour!

The New Year is almost entirely schools for me at the moment, John. *shudders*

PHILIP

[John Bennett]

The New Year is almost entirely schools for me at the moment, John. *shudders*

PHILIP

Mmmm, same here. All evening ones too. *shudders some more*

[thewastelandr]

Oh I think most women would be happy to listen to Martin say/sing anything.

[George Hutchinson]

Latest news on Ripper tour...

This afternoon I was taking a group of 14-year-old girls from a school in Kent on a Ripper tour.

At the end, a teacher confided to me that one of the girls in the group had the surname Hutchinson and was a direct descendant of our George. I asked if I could speak to her but he said she didn't want me or the girls in the group to know. I told him to convey to her that she was probably doing the right thing by keeping herself undercover, though it was a shame.

Opinions?

PHILIP

[John Bennett]

I wonder how the teacher knew?

PS.. Bad news about Dorset Street, by the way. It's now out of bounds. I've emailed you Phil.

JB