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I thought I would do some timings in and around Durward Street this afternoon.
1. Firstly, I wanted to time the distance between Dr Llewellyn's old residence of 152 Whitechapel Road and the murder site. Number 152 no longer exists (the numbering jumps from 142 all the way up to 176) but, assuming the rest of the numbering of the road is unchanged, it presumably would have stood a little to the west of the London Hospital, on a site which is currently a car park. So, from where I think 152 would have stood, I timed the walk to near the murder site - walking quite briskly as I assume Thain would have done - as being 4 mins 40 seconds (being 3 mins exactly to the end of Brady St and a further 1 min 40 seconds up as far as I could go into Durward Street). I say near to the murder site because the spot where I think Nichols was murdered is currently blocked off by a barrier due to construction work and inaccessible. So we should add on another 10-20 seconds to get me to the exact spot. So, assuming Thain went straight there and did not collect his cape from the slaughterhouse at Winthrop Street, it should have taken the officer about 5 minutes to walk briskly from the murder site to the outside of 152 Whitechapel Road.
2. I thought I would also follow in Christer's footsteps and walk the ground between 22 Doveton Street, the home of Charles Cross, and the murder site (or as close as I could get to the site bearing in mind the construction work). As far as I could tell, number 22 no longer exists so I started half way down the street. My route to Buck's Row took me down Wickford Street, into Cephas Street, then across Cambridge Heath Road, through Hedlam Street, across Collywood Street, into Ceron Street then Brady Street and finally into Durward Street. Walking at a brisk pace brought me to the barrier at 6 mins 44 seconds, so I would probably have got to the murder site at about 7 mins, very close to Christer's timings in the documentary.
3. However, that really was at quite a brisk pace. I wasn't out of breath but I felt it was a decent aerobic workout. I wondered what the timing would be at a much slower pace but still at a pace many people do normally walk. This was difficult for me because I do walk normally quite fast but I controlled my natural instincts and did the same journey in 9 minutes, 50 seconds. In other words it is quite possible that Cross took 10 minutes to reach the murder site in Buck's Row if he walked at a more leisurely pace.
4. Having taken a diversion to walk around the construction work, I came back down the other end of Durward Street to get as close as possible to the murder site (which I assume was somewhere around the back end of the current Whitechapel Sports Centre). From there, at the same leisurely pace, I walked to the end of Hanbury Street where it meets Vallance Road (formerly Baker's Row). This took me 3 mins, 30 seconds. But that was a slow pace. From there I went on walking at the same slow pace up to Liverpool Street and I arrived at the front of Liverpool Street Station 17 minutes and 38 seconds later. In other words, at a rather slow pace it took me 21 minutes and 8 seconds to get from the murder site to Liverpool Street Station, thus making the whole journey from Doveton Street to Liverpool Street Station at this slow pace as being 31 minutes and 8 seconds.
5. While I did not do any further timings, had Cross walked at a pace between the very brisk pace that took me 7 mins to get from his home to Buck's Row and the much slower pace that took me 10 minutes to do the same journey he would surely have got to work by 4:00am, had he left his house at 3.30am walking that same mid-pace. I appreciate that he was going to near Broad Street station rather than Liverpool St but the two were adjacent and getting to Pickford's should not have added too much time to his journey.
N.B. None of my walks were interrupted by traffic or other obstacles.
Therefore, on the basis that Cross knew the exact time it would take him to get to work, regularly left his house at 3:30 and arrived punctually at 4:00am, I would conclude that Cross walked at a pace that would have taken him 8 or even 9 minutes to get to Buck's Row and maintaining this pace would have got him to work on time.
Not that any of it really matters because we don't know what exact time Cross left his home nor what time Robert Paul left his house and even if Paul thought it was a minute or two before 3.45 his clock might have been a few minutes fast so that he really left a minute or two before 3.40. All pointless, therefore, but no harm in doing it!
1. Firstly, I wanted to time the distance between Dr Llewellyn's old residence of 152 Whitechapel Road and the murder site. Number 152 no longer exists (the numbering jumps from 142 all the way up to 176) but, assuming the rest of the numbering of the road is unchanged, it presumably would have stood a little to the west of the London Hospital, on a site which is currently a car park. So, from where I think 152 would have stood, I timed the walk to near the murder site - walking quite briskly as I assume Thain would have done - as being 4 mins 40 seconds (being 3 mins exactly to the end of Brady St and a further 1 min 40 seconds up as far as I could go into Durward Street). I say near to the murder site because the spot where I think Nichols was murdered is currently blocked off by a barrier due to construction work and inaccessible. So we should add on another 10-20 seconds to get me to the exact spot. So, assuming Thain went straight there and did not collect his cape from the slaughterhouse at Winthrop Street, it should have taken the officer about 5 minutes to walk briskly from the murder site to the outside of 152 Whitechapel Road.
2. I thought I would also follow in Christer's footsteps and walk the ground between 22 Doveton Street, the home of Charles Cross, and the murder site (or as close as I could get to the site bearing in mind the construction work). As far as I could tell, number 22 no longer exists so I started half way down the street. My route to Buck's Row took me down Wickford Street, into Cephas Street, then across Cambridge Heath Road, through Hedlam Street, across Collywood Street, into Ceron Street then Brady Street and finally into Durward Street. Walking at a brisk pace brought me to the barrier at 6 mins 44 seconds, so I would probably have got to the murder site at about 7 mins, very close to Christer's timings in the documentary.
3. However, that really was at quite a brisk pace. I wasn't out of breath but I felt it was a decent aerobic workout. I wondered what the timing would be at a much slower pace but still at a pace many people do normally walk. This was difficult for me because I do walk normally quite fast but I controlled my natural instincts and did the same journey in 9 minutes, 50 seconds. In other words it is quite possible that Cross took 10 minutes to reach the murder site in Buck's Row if he walked at a more leisurely pace.
4. Having taken a diversion to walk around the construction work, I came back down the other end of Durward Street to get as close as possible to the murder site (which I assume was somewhere around the back end of the current Whitechapel Sports Centre). From there, at the same leisurely pace, I walked to the end of Hanbury Street where it meets Vallance Road (formerly Baker's Row). This took me 3 mins, 30 seconds. But that was a slow pace. From there I went on walking at the same slow pace up to Liverpool Street and I arrived at the front of Liverpool Street Station 17 minutes and 38 seconds later. In other words, at a rather slow pace it took me 21 minutes and 8 seconds to get from the murder site to Liverpool Street Station, thus making the whole journey from Doveton Street to Liverpool Street Station at this slow pace as being 31 minutes and 8 seconds.
5. While I did not do any further timings, had Cross walked at a pace between the very brisk pace that took me 7 mins to get from his home to Buck's Row and the much slower pace that took me 10 minutes to do the same journey he would surely have got to work by 4:00am, had he left his house at 3.30am walking that same mid-pace. I appreciate that he was going to near Broad Street station rather than Liverpool St but the two were adjacent and getting to Pickford's should not have added too much time to his journey.
N.B. None of my walks were interrupted by traffic or other obstacles.
Therefore, on the basis that Cross knew the exact time it would take him to get to work, regularly left his house at 3:30 and arrived punctually at 4:00am, I would conclude that Cross walked at a pace that would have taken him 8 or even 9 minutes to get to Buck's Row and maintaining this pace would have got him to work on time.
Not that any of it really matters because we don't know what exact time Cross left his home nor what time Robert Paul left his house and even if Paul thought it was a minute or two before 3.45 his clock might have been a few minutes fast so that he really left a minute or two before 3.40. All pointless, therefore, but no harm in doing it!
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