Can Anyone Help Me Understand the Back Court of 29 Hanbury Street

[Christian]

My best guess is that it may still have been regarded as Brewery land hence its appearance on the map as backing right up the back railings / gate that is in the picture. Reality it was most likely spare ground that led to the alley that ran behind 27 and down towards the passage way that led back out onto Hanbury St.

I’d wager that was his escape route if the back was a gate, I doubt he was doing much climbing with bloodied recently harvested organs in his possession.

There was no gate in 1888!, it clearly shows the building backing right up to the rear of 29!, you cannot compare the Mason footage from 67 when much can change /alter after almost 80 years !! This exact subject has been debated very much on here

[erobitha]

There was no gate in 1888!, it clearly shows the building backing right up to the rear of 29!, you cannot compare the Mason footage from 67 when much can change /alter after almost 80 years !! This exact subject has been debated very much on here

If you are happy that the map was not simply showing who owned the land and that the back railings / gate were not in existence in 1888 - then that’s good enough for me. A lot can happen happen as you say from 1888 to 1967.

In which case he most likely then left the way he entered.

[Christian]

If you are happy that the map was not simply showing who owned the land and that the back railings / gate were not in existence in 1888 - then that’s good enough for me. A lot can happen happen as you say from 1888 to 1967.

In which case he most likely then left the way he entered.

Indeed a lot of what we discuss debate is conjecture-opinion sometimes fact sometimes not but fun & interesting!!

[AlanG]

Taken from 'In Murderland' originally printed in Pall Mall gazette in 1890. The journalist had revisited sites where bodies had been found. I know your original post was the layout, but I saw this and on the off chance you hadn't read it, it might add something to your work.


“Next, there is that mysterious house in Hanbury-street at which the world looked askance when the evidence given at the inquest on the disembowelled body found in its backyard revealed the fact that unfortunates, somehow or another, seemed to possess a right of way through the passage, and so into the yard.

One would have thought that, after such a revelation as that, some steps would at least have been taken to put a stop to such a scandal.

But no. After midnight there is nothing whatever to prevent anybody from lifting the latch of the door and proceeding, by way of the passage, to the very spot where the Ripper in a paroxysm of fury plucked out the entrails of another victim.

The reason is obvious. The premises are nothing more than a “doss” house on a small scale; its residents change nearly every day, and nobody would presume to question the right of any one to pass through the passage and so into the fateful yard, where, as before, a murder could be committed now with comparative impunity.

And yet, what an outburst of popular indignation there would be if another butchery occurred on the self-same spot that reeked before with the blood of a murdered woman!”

Sorry if you have already read it.

[barnflatwyngarde]

Taken from 'In Murderland' originally printed in Pall Mall gazette in 1890. The journalist had revisited sites where bodies had been found. I know your original post was the layout, but I saw this and on the off chance you hadn't read it, it might add something to your work.


“Next, there is that mysterious house in Hanbury-street at which the world looked askance when the evidence given at the inquest on the disembowelled body found in its backyard revealed the fact that unfortunates, somehow or another, seemed to possess a right of way through the passage, and so into the yard.

One would have thought that, after such a revelation as that, some steps would at least have been taken to put a stop to such a scandal.

But no. After midnight there is nothing whatever to prevent anybody from lifting the latch of the door and proceeding, by way of the passage, to the very spot where the Ripper in a paroxysm of fury plucked out the entrails of another victim.

The reason is obvious. The premises are nothing more than a “doss” house on a small scale; its residents change nearly every day, and nobody would presume to question the right of any one to pass through the passage and so into the fateful yard, where, as before, a murder could be committed now with comparative impunity.

And yet, what an outburst of popular indignation there would be if another butchery occurred on the self-same spot that reeked before with the blood of a murdered woman!”

Sorry if you have already read it.

Nope, I hadn't seen this one.

Thanks!