A visit to the East end

[Guest]

In 1966 -67 I was stationed with the armed forces in Chelsea Barracks London and quite often wandered around the various pubs in the East end on a Saturday afternoon or evening [ it was cheaper than drinkling in the West end]
At that point I had little or no interest in the Ripper until one afternoon my drinking companion [who was a secret ripperologist] suggested a walk around the old murder sites before they all got swept away.
I won't bore you with details of what i saw as they have been described many times by more capable people than me who were there at the time.
However what i will say is that the East end in 1966 was was one awful run down and dilapidated area, so god knows what it was like in 1888. There were still plenty of narrow streets and allyways which unless you had a street map or were very familiar with the area would result in you getting lost in no-time.

Based on that I have always reckoned that the ripper was someone living and possibly working in the area, lets face it, you need to be pretty confident in your ability to be able to navigate the streets for a getaway if your going to leave a trail of bodies behind you.

Once i had visted the scenes of crime I was of course hooked, and consequently managed to always bring the Ripper into the odd conversation with the locals in the Pubs. To my surprise I found that most but not all people had little or no idea of the Ripper, other than it was something that had taken place in the last century.

I did however have one cracking conversation with 2 old blokes who said they were in thier late 80's and had been small kids in whitechapel when the Murders took place. They decribed what life was like growing up in the end of the last century and my god it sounded grim.

I asked them if they had any thoughts on who might have been the Ripper, the answers were absoluty classic. One said if you buy me a whisky I'll tell you who he was !!!. His mate chirped in and said , bugger that, if you buy me a double whisky I'll sign a confession!!!

[kensei]

I did a solo daytime tour of all the Ripper sites while on vacation not quite two months ago. I asked the bartender in the Ten Bells if they get questions about the Ripper very often and he said I was only the second person he'd ever heard ask. I related that to Philip Hutchinson a couple of nights later while taking his guided tour and he was highly skeptical of it. There seemed to be a concentrated effort in that pub to steer away from the Ripper after having been so strongly associated with him for so long.

But I got a completely different reaction in the Happy Days Restaurant on Goulston Street, where the doorway still stands where the "Juwes" writing and Kate Eddowes' apron were found. I asked the same question- do you get many Jack the Ripper questions here- and the young man at the counter gave a huge grin, pointed and said, "Yes we do, because THAT'S THE DOOR!"

[John Bennett]

I won't bore you with details of what i saw as they have been described many times by more capable people than me who were there at the time.

1966/7?

Ammoboots, come back and tell us more!

[WARSPITE]

In 1966 -67 I was stationed with the armed forces in Chelsea Barracks London and quite often wandered around the various pubs in the East end on a Saturday afternoon or evening [ it was cheaper than drinkling in the West end]
At that point I had little or no interest in the Ripper until one afternoon my drinking companion [who was a secret ripperologist] suggested a walk around the old murder sites before they all got swept away.
I won't bore you with details of what i saw as they have been described many times by more capable people than me who were there at the time.
However what i will say is that the East end in 1966 was was one awful run down and dilapidated area, so god knows what it was like in 1888. There were still plenty of narrow streets and allyways which unless you had a street map or were very familiar with the area would result in you getting lost in no-time.

Based on that I have always reckoned that the ripper was someone living and possibly working in the area, lets face it, you need to be pretty confident in your ability to be able to navigate the streets for a getaway if your going to leave a trail of bodies behind you.

Once i had visted the scenes of crime I was of course hooked, and consequently managed to always bring the Ripper into the odd conversation with the locals in the Pubs. To my surprise I found that most but not all people had little or no idea of the Ripper, other than it was something that had taken place in the last century.

I did however have one cracking conversation with 2 old blokes who said they were in thier late 80's and had been small kids in whitechapel when the Murders took place. They decribed what life was like growing up in the end of the last century and my god it sounded grim.

I asked them if they had any thoughts on who might have been the Ripper, the answers were absoluty classic. One said if you buy me a whisky I'll tell you who he was !!!. His mate chirped in and said , bugger that, if you buy me a double whisky I'll sign a confession!!!

He he! what a great story. Thanks for sharing it with us, first hand accounts are so valuable. I imagine, despite our craving for anything physical/building that reminds us of those days, (and I do get so nostalgic over all the old photos on here),that we'd be pretty shocked if we went back.