Image Enhancements

[Garry Wroe]

Well, here you go, Jon. It was certainly a strange one. Whereas the market area was relatively simple to clarify, the buildings were anything but. The results, therefore, are a little disappointing, to say the least.

Good hunting!

[Garry Wroe]

Here's Durward Street as I remember it in the late-Eighties and early-Nineties:-



The inner courtyard of the Rothschild Buildings circa 1973:-



Old Montague Street in the 1930s:-

[The Grave Maurice]

Thanks again, Garry. Were it not for your photo, I would have sworn that the left side of Durward had been rebuilt much earlier. Memory is not always reliable, but pictures are.

I also like the shot of Rothschild Buildings, and will take this opportunity to recommend the book of the same name by Jerry White. Well worth reading by anyone interested in the period.

[Garry Wroe]

As I remember it, Ken, the south side of Durward Street was lined with plywood boards attached to the posts visible in the photograph. I recall passing one morning and looking on in horror as a mechanical digger ripped up the old Victorian cobbles/pads. Since the normal procedure for the period was simply to tarmac over the existing road surface, I can only assume that access was required to the underlying structures. One day the penny will drop and someone at Tower Hamlets Council will finally recognize the lost tourism opportunities resulting from the seemingly wanton destruction of the area.

Such is progress.

[Garry Wroe]

Here's the very patch of ground mentioned in your previous post, Ken:-

[Mr Stu]

Hi, I had the dubious honour of surveying the old school in the early nineties for the refurb/new development Durward Street by Rialto Homes I think. It was certainly one of the more interesting if bloody spooky jobs I did. When I heard I'd be on that job all I knew was we'd be in Whitechapel for a week or so - I had no idea whereabouts. I travelled down with my Jack The Ripper A-Z and couldnt believe it when we turn the corner and I saw the site - I was looking at an old photo of the school as we entered the street - felt most odd. What a creepy job though. Regardless of the Ripper connection the school building was scary in itself. Alot of it was badly fire damaged and pretty dangerous to work in, there were ominous noises coming from the cellar, random tramps using the side of the place as a toilet. I remember it was around November time and it was that murky winter dampness that make the evenings draw in even more than normal. We didnt hang around once the light had gone - its tricky but just about possible to keep working but it was a case of any excuse to get away from the place. It really did feel like haunted house time though it seems silly saying it now. One odd feature in the building was the stairways. To keep the kids seperated back in the day, they had like double spiral stairways running sort of side by side. Very confusing going up the stairs and ending in the wrong half of the building to what you were expecting - it really took some getting used to, strange but very ingenious.

[Wickerman]

I can't be sure of the year, perhaps late '71 or early '72 when I first found myself in Whitechapel.
I walked the length of Whitechapel Road and turned left up Brady Street, then left again down Durward St. (Bucks Row). I was surprised just how narrow it seemed. It wasn't like astreet to my mind more like a back ally.
Stewart Evans posted a pic from the late 60's, perhaps about 5 years before I was there, but this (below) is how I remember Bucks Row.


Courtesy, Stewart Evans.

The garage on the right is the location where Nichols body was found.


Then there was Mitre Sq., in fact I was there early one Sunday morning before the sun came up. This picture (below) is exactly how I remember walking down Church Passage, footsteps echoed as you walked down.
We experimented, the person I was with walked down while I stood on the spot where Eddowes body was found, just to see if the killer could have heard PC Harvey descending the passage. Yes, he could have, but I doubt very much that Harvey could have seen across the square.




Regards, Jon S.

[Garry Wroe]

Since Stu mentioned the Board School, here it is under renovation in 1996:-



And Black Lion Yard, probably dating from the Sixties:-

[Garry Wroe]

Two images of Black Lion Yard circa 1961:-

[Garry Wroe]

Whitechapel, 1938 ...



White's Row, 1944 ...



And again in 1956 ...

[Garry Wroe]

Whitechapel Church, date unspecified ...



Catherine Court, again date unknown ...



And Endell Street, 1877 ...

[Garry Wroe]

Monument Street, 1920s:-



Whitechapel High Street, 1890s:-



And again in 1905:-

[Stephen Thomas]

Monument Street, 1920s:-

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Thanks, Garry, I hadn't seen this photo before of what is one of the great London views that can be seen to this day. Apart from the electric overhead streetlight and the headgear of the man bottom right the photo could have been taken in 1888. Lots of Billingsgate workers there.

[Garry Wroe]

Many thanks, Stephen. I dug it out of the on-site Photo Archive a few days ago. That's where I also found the Endell Street image. It's one of the most evocative I've seen in a long time. Could've come straight out of the pages of Dickens.

[Garry Wroe]

St Botolph's, 1900 ...



In keeping with the spirit of this thread, here's one that required major reconstruction. Whitechapel Church, 1870 ...