East End Photographs and Drawings

[Stephen Thomas]

Lovely photos, Adam. Many thanks.

[Paddy Goose]

Gardiners Corner

[The Grave Maurice]

Nice shot of the Corner, Paddy. I haven't seen that one before.
When I was young, Haig went under the name Haig & Haig and they produced quite a decent blended whisky called Pinch.

[mrmajester]

Gunthorpe Street last Wednesday, October 27th:

[The Grave Maurice]

Oh, nice shot. I especially like the detail on the nearer setts. I assume that you used a long exposure on a tripod.

[mrmajester]

Oh, nice shot. I especially like the detail on the nearer setts. I assume that you used a long exposure on a tripod.

I had a little chuckle then, this picture was taken on my iPhone! Not bad, really.

[The Grave Maurice]

Amazing. Good phone, good eye, I say.

[mrmajester]

Amazing. Good phone, good eye, I say.

Thanks. I'd had a few beers that night and a big curry in Brick Lane, this was taken the day before my 45th birthday on the way back to Aldgate East station, at about, 9.00 PM. I just turned and snapped the picture. I must try and sepia tone it at some time, then repost.

[kensei]

My word, none of that colorful graffitti was to be seen when I was there two years ago. Kind of detracts from the overall creepy feel of that little lane. Is that stuff removed regularly?

[mrmajester]

My word, none of that colorful graffitti was to be seen when I was there two years ago. Kind of detracts from the overall creepy feel of that little lane. Is that stuff removed regularly?

It's not graffitti, it is a local history thingy. Sort of hard to explain, look's like some **** at the local council came up with the idea of 'sprucing it up' and basically it's crap.

[kensei]

Oh wow, that is just so wrong. Is the JTR sign on the side of the White Hart still there at least?

[mrmajester]

Oh wow, that is just so wrong. Is the JTR sign on the side of the White Hart still there at least?

Yes it is.

[kensei]

Aaah, glad to hear it. Even as wrong as that sign is on some of its details.

[John Bennett]

The 'mural' in Gunthorpe Street has been there for many years, certainly before 2007 - I believe it was some project done with Canon Barnett School. Can't say the exact year off the top of my head (though it does say on the wall somewhere).

I'm rather curious about the previous few posts, though. Why is it so wrong? And do I detect a sense of 'relief' that the White Hart's JTR board is still in place? Again, I'm just curious as to why?

JB

[kensei]

The 'mural' in Gunthorpe Street has been there for many years, certainly before 2007 - I believe it was some project done with Canon Barnett School. Can't say the exact year off the top of my head (though it does say on the wall somewhere).

I'm rather curious about the previous few posts, though. Why is it so wrong? And do I detect a sense of 'relief' that the White Hart's JTR board is still in place? Again, I'm just curious as to why?

JB

Aaargh, I hate finding out I'm wrong, or at least partly so. I have just gone and looked at my photos and video from my solo Ripper tour of September 2008. I passed through Gunthorpe Street at midday in bright daylight. My photo of the archway standing a bit back from it shows nothing of the mural, but my video shot while walking through it does show the darker parts along the sides. All that bright color shown in mrmajester's artificially lit night time shot though is nowhere to be seen, especially on the "ceiling" where though it is hardly in darkness there is really nothing at all visible in the shadows. So I'm wondering- could the lighting play that big a role in making me just not see all that yellow and red, or has the mural been heavily touched up in the past two years since I was there? Or perhaps I'm just losing my mind. I was there, I really was.

Why do I think the mural is wrong? Well, just in the way that Ripper devotees think that any changes to the old sites are wrong. Of course time marches on and the landscape changes, but in our perfect fantasy worlds we'd like to see history preserved. No one would paint such a mural at the Tower of London, but then not everyone considers the Ripper sites to be as important as that. As for the White Hart's sign, I like that it is there because on my entire Ripper tour it was the only blatantly obvious public reference to JTR that no passerby is going to miss. Even though it lists the end of the murders at "30 November" instead of "9 November" and puts the number of victims at the traditional five even though it is just a couple of minutes' walk from the murder site of the woman who many feel pushes the number to six. It is there solely because of George Chapman who lived in the pub's basement. I think someone should have realized what else the site marks.