East End Watch

[George Hutchinson]

No pedestrians at all.

I phoned the City Surveyor this afternoon and he has replied that tour groups WILL be allowed into the road (and he does state, quite correctly, that it is a private road after all) but first they must apply to the City for a licence.

I'm fine with that - it'll keep out the riff-raff. However, in the meantime we've all got issues. Groups were being turned away today. Tomorrow night's going to be chaos - we've got three groups of public tours from our own company, let alone anyone else. Thankfully, I can do a route where I end at Dorset Street and should thus be avoiding most of the other people, getting there at about 8:30pm.

PHILIP

[kensei]

Hi Philip,

No more passage through White's Row? That's terrible. Just some recollection of when I was there this past September the week that I met you-- When I was doing my solo tour I came up from the south at around 1 p.m. and was carrying some greasy fish and chips from the Happy Days I'd just bought for lunch. When I got to the west end of White's Row I saw that there was a gate, but a man was just walking out and I asked him if it was ok to pass through. He shrugged and looked like he thought it was a strange question and just said "yeah." But when I was shooting video of the fruit exchange and narrarating the story out loud for my friends back home, an Indian fellow inside one of the big doors who was sweeping the floor was eyeing me quite a bit, and it looked like he then went and got his supervisor, who came and asked me what I was doing. I told him exactly and then asked if it was ok, and he said I could film outside but not to point the camera into the interior of the building. Is there no pedestrian traffic allowed through there at all anymore, or is it just closed to tour groups?

[George Hutchinson]

Hi John.

Snaps already done from all angles and already here on the site, along with a link to a YouTube vid but more obviously welcome.

Interesting about the doors - I just assumed all of it to be linked to the station.

I should also mention that the building in the opposite corner of Mitre Square to Ripper's Corner has the demolition contractors in who appear to be gutting the building. I'm often tempted to find out who I need to speak to to get up into the building and take some shots from above.

PHILIP

[John Bennett]

This has probably been mentioned already, but the original site (now derelict) of the original Aldgate East Station (corner of Goulston St and Whitechapel High St) is now on view as the original solid hoardings have been replaced by railings.

There is not that much to see, though on the Goulston Street side there are some brick 'doorways' which lead me to believe we are looking at the cellars of the former Aldgate East Tavern, a picture of which Rob Clack posted on the East End pictures thread last week.

I'm in the area on Saturday morning (school tour) and it will be daylight for a change, so I'll try and get some snaps before they build something on it.

[George Hutchinson]

No, nothing Maybricky!

I started a thread in the good old days about changes to the Ripper district that were occuring at the time; direct architectural ones and things affiliated with the same. By its very nature, there's only a few people here who can regularly contribute updates but I thought it relevant.

For example, at present Goulston Street is dug up and being entirely repaved. They've done Happy Days (today they finished it, actually) but there's nothing of note to see; the upheavals don't go deep enough.

The other thing with far greater - and concerning - ramifications is the news I was given by the company today before I started taking a tour.

The City have now barred all public access to the service road that was Dorset Street PERMANENTLY. They claim it is to stop the prostitutes, which is utter crap. I've never seen one down that road, there's nothing to stop people walking in there, a group of tourists are hardly with a prostitute (erm... we won't go there... no comments on gang-bangs or dogging...) and if you stop all the tours going into that road, well - a quiet undisturbed place is going to be JUST what the prostitutes are looking for! When I was there today, there were two yellow-jacketed security guards standing nearby (I stopped and did it all by the barrier at the Commercial Street side and it felt rubbish) but at the same time, I saw another group from the same company actually in the street doing the business - albeit down at the far end.

I suspect that it has nothing at all to do with prostitutes and the people at the Fruit Exchange have brought in a private security firm as they've had enough of tours stopping outside their business. However, the chaps that DO work there have always been very friendly to me. I've asked the company if they know why another group was in there when we'd been told there was no more public access, but I've yet to have a reply.

I can't see it lasting if it's true. This would mean permanent security guards, 24 hours a day, walking up and down one strip of service road. It's nonsensical.

PHILIP