Miller's Court - Names and Numbers

[DrHopper]

I have been trying to make sense of the layout of Millers Court for some time now, and I think I have noticed something interesting.

2 further murders were committed here (Elizabeth Roberts in 1898 and Kitty Ronan in 1909)

Now, the Kitty Ronan murder took place in No.12 Miller’s Court. This is normally assumed to be Prater’s old room, directly above Room 13. However, if we read the court transcripts (http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=542) it is stated that Room 12 is the upper floor above Room 11. This does not sound like Prater’s old room to me, rather, it sounds like just another terraced ‘house’ in the court.

I know this was covered a little bit in this thread

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=72

But I think it makes more sense viewed this way, rather than assuming that the court was renumbered.

However, the murder of Elizabeth Roberts (1898), by her sister, Kate Marshall, in the “first floor back room” of 26 Dorset Street sounds a lot more like Prater’s old room to me.

Perhaps we are conflating the two?

Now, the further point of this is that it has a large amount of bearing on the actual geography and layout of Miller’s Court. Not least of which is that the upper floor of 26 Dorset Street is divided into 2 rooms – front and back (again, in the transcripts for the Roberts murder http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=547), which has a bearing on the whole “is it really Prater’s room”.

I am working on a few ideas at the moment, particularly exploring the later, post-Kelly, history of Miller’s Court.

Thoughts anyone?

[Stephen Thomas]

Now, the Kitty Ronan murder took place in No.12 Miller’s Court. This is normally assumed to be Prater’s old room, directly above Room 13.

Hi DrH and welcome

Normality is an illusion. Recent internet research has shown beyond any reasonable doubt that Mrs Prater didn't inhabit the room above Mary Kelly but incredibly some people can't get their head round this obvious fact. Eliza Roberts was murdered in the room directly above Mary Kelly's 10 years later and Kitty Ronan's room was on the upper floor of the building on the right of the court facing Kelly's windows.

[KTF]

I have always understood that the houses in Millers court were numbered as follows assuming you are facing them as you go through the passage:

left hand side (house 1) bottom no1/top no2 (house 2) bottom no3/top no4 (house 3) bottom no5/top no6
right hand side (far house no 4) bottom no7/top no8 (house 5) bottom no9/top no10 (house 6) bottom no11/ top no 12

Mary Kelly's house was part of the main Dorset Street house and was numbered no 13 although it was considered part of the court as it had it's own door. I've always wondered how the other rooms of the Dorset Street house were numbered and partitioned. I expect the room above Kelly had a no totally out of sequence to the nos of the houses in the court because it was part of the main house and didn't have its own outside door. Elizabeth Prater gave her address as Room 20 of the Dorset Street house and I've always thought it was one of three possible rooms: the one above Kelly, the one on the second floor of the main house looking into the court or, at a push, the one above the passageway...

[Stephen Thomas]

I have always understood that the houses in Millers court were numbered as follows assuming you are facing them as you go through the passage:

left hand side (house 1) bottom no1/top no2 (house 2) bottom no3/top no4 (house 3) bottom no5/top no6
right hand side (far house no 4) bottom no7/top no8 (house 5) bottom no9/top no10 (house 6) bottom no11/ top no 12

Hi KTF and welcome

Yes, that's correct. Rooms 14 to 20 of McCarthy's Rents were inside 26 Dorset St.