29 Hanburry street

[Andrew Firth]

An excellent find there John!

It's nice to have such an event pinpointed in time so accurately! Now we just need to find proof of when all the other "about 1972-ish" demolitions took place in the East End!

All the best
Andrew

[John Bennett]

And finally an answer...

I've always felt there was some confusion as to when 29 Hanbury Street was demolished. It is often said late 1960s. Don Rumbelow says c.1968. It is also said that it was 1972. Winston G Ramsey has it as April 1970, but he got several things wrong.

I found this today. East London Advertiser, 6th March 1970.


It's packed with typically dodgy Ripper journalism, but as it copied poorly, here's a transcription:

'JACK THE RIPPER' LANDMARK GOES

The East End lost a “landmark” this week when workmen pulled down a house and the courtyard behind in Hanbury Street, Stepney. The narrow, dim courtyard was the scene 80 years ago of the savage murder of Jack the Ripper’s third woman victim.

Scotland Yard “top brass” and local police from Commercial Street crowded the cobbled courtyard in days gone by when the woman, believed to be a prostitute, was found slumped up against a wall, her stomach slashed to ribbons.

Although Jack may be long dead, his ghost returned to haunt motorists trying to drive down Hanbury Street – police had to seal off the road because of falling rubble and dangerous brickwork.
Looks like Winston was the closest!
JB

[Mitch Rowe]

Can you imagine the stink in that place - this was condemned meat! And they slept there in the room too...

JtR must have been familiar with the layout and the habits of the Hardimans, he would never have risked going through the house into the yard otherwise surely? - and how on earth did he persuade his victim to go with him? The mind boggles

It was probably Annie who knew the layout. It wasnt unususual for people to just walk through doors into buildings. Im sure Annie was quite willing to go with JTR to the backyard.

[Sara]

That's true! I read somewhere that people kept their windows closed to keep the smells *out* and with chamber pots and unwashed bodies, lack of refrigeration etc indoors, that's a pretty startling thought!

[Supe]

Sara,

I think most modern Ripperologists would find most of the East End in 1888 to be quite malodorous, so I'm not sure using a passageway through a home with a cats-meat store in the front parlor was that much more offensive than many other places. Those who yearn for time machines and enjoy modern notions of hygiene are apt to be in for some unpleasant surprises if their wishes are granted.

Don.

[sdreid]

Familiar ain't the word

[Sara]

Can you imagine the stink in that place - this was condemned meat! And they slept there in the room too...

JtR must have been familiar with the layout and the habits of the Hardimans, he would never have risked going through the house into the yard otherwise surely? - and how on earth did he persuade his victim to go with him? The mind boggles

[sdreid]

As per post #13, are there any other sound film interviews with cat's meat men or might this be it?

[Pippin Joan]

Wonderful pictures!

What's that thing above the picture in Chris Scott's post? It looks like a Monty Python huge person is looking down through a kaleidoscope. Beware of a giant foot! Lovely Wonderful

[Suzi]

Hi Julius-
Re the cat's meat man- Once a familiar sight,he sold wooden skewers of meat trimmings unfit for human consumption and horse meat sometimes from a shop attached to a slaughter yard or commonly from a small two-wheeled barrow complete with slicing board. The meat was sometimes dyed blue-green to prevent it being resold as human food and was sometimes too rotten or foul for cats to eat. Skewer sizes ranged from a ha'penny snack to a threepenny feast. With regular,more well to do cat 'owners', he would post the skewers through the letterbox and be paid weekly*. Owners had to carefully inspect it,dipping it in weak vinegar,or boiling water,and then rubbing it with a cloth to remove flies' eggs and maggots.

*Any self respecting cat would of course suss out cats meat man time and would position him/herself at a strategic point under said letterbox,prior to assuming an innocent air and/or disappearing from the scene come 'pay day'!!

Suz x

[sdreid]

Last night I watched an old Tod Slaughter film entitled The Crimes of Stephen Hawke. At the start of the movie, there's a mock radio broadcast featuring Slaughter as himself as well as a comedy team named Flotsam and Jetsam which was an actual act of the period. There is also a man who's interviewed on the show named Henry Hopkins. He describes himself as a cat's meat man who has been at that occupation for 50 years. The film was made in 1936 so that would put him on the job through the Ripper period. Does anyone know if Mr. Hopkins was an actual person who would have been out selling on the streets of London 1886-1936+? He is not listed in the credits either in the movie or on IMDb.

[Graham]

Some of these old jobs and trades confuse me sometimes.

I presume it refers to a shop where you could buy meat to give your cat and not the other kind of cat's meat

Julius,

They boiled horse-flesh for Diddles' supper, simple as that.

Graham

[Julius]

Some of these old jobs and trades confuse me sometimes.

I presume it refers to a shop where you could buy meat to give your cat and not the other kind of cat's meat

[thehood]

Oh thanks. Now everything is clear.

[George Hutchinson]

So if I understand, the door leading to the court was the door were the policeman is standing. The entrance for the cat meat shop should be behind the house.

Hi TheHood. Not really. The policeman is standing where the door into the HOUSE is. There was no court at #29. The door led into the house with a staircase further down in front of you and a kink in the corridor as it passes round it to the back door and thus the back yard. As you go through the front door, the entrance into the shop was another door in the wall immediately on your right. Another door in that same wall by the back door led into a back room. No one with business with the Hardimans would have any reason to go further than the entrance to the building. The back yard gave access to cellar steps, immediately to the right of the door if you were about to enter the yard, which led down to where the Richardsons ran their packing case business.

PHILIP