Why Were Street Names Changed?

[Richard E. Nixon]

Were the street names really changed (Buck's Row, for example) simply because of the Ripper crimes? Would the city really go that far because of a single murder? It's not like simply changing the name of a street where a crime occurred is going to keep away the public anyway.

Anyone know?

[The Grave Maurice]

Hi Dick,

From memory, it was only Buck's Row that was changed at the insistence of its residents to avoid (it was hoped) JtR-related publicity. The reputation of Dorset Street was so bad that even a JtR murder couldn't make it any worse. Berner Street wasn't changed till quite a while later, and that was simply to honour a local bigwig.

[Andrew Firth]

Berner Street was renamed in 1964 if I recall correctly, in honour of philanthropist Sir Basil Henriques. Up until a couple of years ago, the street sign at the Commercial Road end proclaimed the street to be "Henriques Street Formerly Berner Street".

All the best
Andrew

[ChrisGeorge]

Hi Richard E., Andrew, Maurice, et al.

Andrew, you are correct about the renaming of Berner Street to honor Jewish philanthropist Sir Basil Lucas Quixano Henriques (1890–1961). See this Wiki page on him. I believe he was of Sephardic (Portuguese) Jewish background rather than Ashkenazi (Eastern European) background, which was the origin of most of the East End Jewish immigrants of the Ripper period.

Of course, street name changes were carried out not just because of any associations with the Whitechapel murders but, rather, the names of a whole host of London streets have been altered over the last 150 years or so.

See this useful website:

London Street name changes

Chris

[Jonnieola]

Buck's Row along with the rest of the street leading up to Vallance Road was renamed Durward Street on 25th October 1892. Apparently the road was nicknamed "Killer's Row" and the locals petitioned for the name change due to the notoriety.

[chris14]

I have just posted a question in another thread about the street-names. What is the new name of Dorset Street (E1) and/or Miller's Court?

[Andrew Firth]

Chris,

Millers Court no longer exists in any shape or form, as the majority of the site is occupied by the Spitalfields Market Fruit Exchange building built in the late 1920s. The line of Dorset Street still exists, although not quite on the same axis, and is now an un-named service road for the market building, that runs alongside the Whites Row multi-storey car park.

All the best
Andrew

[chris14]

Hi Andrew,

Thank you, yes indeed, the next day after posting my question went there where it should have been - according to the maps I found here on the forum. It's a shame really. It seems that MJK is the only victim who doesn't get an own memorial - certainly not at the murder scene.

Best wishes,

Chris

[kensei]

chris14,
Mary Kelly's memorials are in three places actually. At the fruit exchange, stand right up against the building where there is a sign reading "Danger Forklift Trucks" and you are standing on the spot where she died. (The last I knew anyway, from when I was there in 2008,) Second, a minute or two's walk from there brings you to "Mary's Corner" on Commercial Street, in front of the Ten Bells and just across the street from Christchurch. I felt her strongly when I stood there, wondering how that fallen Catholic girl must have felt as she stood there plying her trade in front of the pub with the great church looming above her. And third is her grave at St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery at Leytonstone where even after all these years there is literally never a shortage of flowers and other things left in her memory.