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Very interesting thread my sort of subject-I have a ripperologist magazine from late 1990s dedicated to all things millers court I’ll dig it out sure things relevant be in the said issue!!
Ill be back cw
A lively presentation, but not entirely accurate (e.g. two breasts on the bedside table... and another in the fire!). Not that it matters for the topic of this specific thread.
I guide exclusively for Discovery Tours, the highest-rated Jack the Ripper tour company on Trip Advisor (www.jack-the-ripper-tour.com). Inspired by my book ...
I always believed Prater's room was directly above that of Kelly’s
It wasn't. She unambiguously said that she lived at the front of the house, above the front room which doubled as McCarthy's shed. Her room's being directly above Kelly is a long-standing urban myth.
it wasn't. She unambiguously said that she lived at the front of the house, above the front room which doubled as mccarthy's shed. Her room's being directly above kelly is a long-standing urban myth.
I'm mainly interested in how the rooms were laid out inside the tenement rooms of Miller's Court and the two main houses.
With regards to 13 Miller's Court, and the room above, being an extension to the three storey house of number 26, note that the same extension was apparently made to both numbers 26 and 27 Dorset Street - indicating the work was done when both houses had the same owner? I'd guess the extensions were both built soon after the main house was built. The chimney stacks for them on both sides (with two pots on top), were neatly built into the properties' dividing walls - it was all a neat and expensive job.
The extension of what we think of as McCarthy's house, number 27, later had its extension cut in half when flats 1 to 6 were built for the first phase of Miller's Court. To fit in flats 1 to 6, and room for the three toilets (by the back wall), meant cutting the two-storey extension back, leaving two awkwardly small rooms at the back of the main house of number 27.
I'd also guess that the small mystery window in the photo was then used as access to the loft space over the room over Mary's room.
Also, the main house at number 26 has a chimney stack of six pots. Presumably for two fireplaces per floor for the first three storeys? Assuming this, the two "flats" in the attic space would therefore be without heat of their own.
When we look close at the design of the two houses (26 + 27) it looks to me like the windows in 27 are a mirror image of their locations in 26. This was not unusual, I lived in an old stone terrace house where they were built in opposing pairs. Therefore, if we see four chimney pots in a group, two likely belong to one house, and two belong to the other house. The houses are in mirror image floor plan.
Also, bare in mind the main floor joists run the same way as the apex of the house. These two houses in Dorset St. have a roof apex running east-west, therefore the main floor joists will likely also run east-west. And as was normal practice any staircase will descend down to the lower floor between the joists, not perpendicular to the joists.
These details can affect the floor plan, but as these houses were used for rental income, it is very likely many walls were wooden partition, only the central wall will have been stone as a load bearing wall.
I meant to add, some years back on Howards Forum some of us along with Richardh, debated a good deal about the internal layout of No.26, he has also produced a rotating 3D model of the structure.
There are some interesting details available concerning No.26, upstairs, given in the testimony of the murder of Elizabeth Roberts, Nov. 1898.
I think it was the Old Bailey records.
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