Millers Court - the demolition picture

[greg]

I was a member a couple of years ago and and been a member of this board since the crash but lost the will to post anything else as most of the information has been gone over time and time again.
However, I obviously still look at the boards.

[halomanuk]

In that case..welcome back..

[WARSPITE]

The photo was taken by S.R. Geiger. I tried to find out more about him at the time but apart from a few sports photos attributed to him there was very little else.

Thanks Greg, who was he? Do you know if his reason for taking them was because he knew the history of the place.If so, youd think he would have taken more as yet undiscovered photos,perhaps of the front,assuming hed have access to the street during demolition

[greg]

I found the picture via the Hulton archive, I typed in spitalfields and that came up with a descrition of construction. Obviously it wasn't a construction site and with a quick study of the photo I could see what appeared to be the Mary Kelly room left intact.

Having read on here stories of the foreman of the site charging people money to visit the J.T.R. murder room it seemed quite possible that the reason it was left standing until the last possible moment was to make as much money as possible. Which is of course the reason why it is clearly visable from the camera position.

Under the caption on the archive was the photographers name and a quick search on the archive came up with about 10 other photos which were sports orientated, Football, Athletics etc. all London based.

There were no other London views that I can remember from him.

He must have been there at about the same time as Leonard Matters who states that the whole site was demolished a few days later.

Maybe he was with Matters. However, I have found nothing else regarding SR Geiger.

[Stephen Thomas]

I found the picture via the Hulton archive, I typed in spitalfields and that came up with a description of construction. Obviously it wasn't a construction site and with a quick study of the photo I could see what appeared to be the Mary Kelly room left intact.

What a brilliant find that was, Greg. It makes one wonder what else is out there. Another recent great find (by Debra) was that of the drawing showing the upper floors of the back of #26 and your photo shows how accurate that is. Here are the two pictures side by side with illustrative graphics by Chris Scott from the start of this thread. The white area to the left of the blue square on the photo shows the site of the Kitty Ronan murder.

[Archaic]

Stephen, thanks for putting the photo & the illustration side-by-side; it makes it much easier to orient oneself.

And Chris, I've been meaning to thank you for generosity in sharing your finds! They are always enlightening.
I especially like the period sketches & news illustrations, as they show the dynamic interplay between the public's conceptions of the Ripper, and how the newspapers in turn shaped & reinforced the public's (and History's) visual conception of him.

Thanks again, Archaic

[Lord Lucan]

Indeed, this is wonderful. A fascinating piece of history and what a lucky shot it was!

[Jason]

to the right of the window, marked in blue, it appears on the photo that there is another window, yet this seems to contradict the artists impression. Or are my eyes playing tricks on me ? can this photgraph be enhanced any further by one of the computer wizards on here ?? plus i cant seem to make out the passageway leading to the dwelling but then again if my eyes are imagining extra windows then that means nothing !!

[Jason]

sorry, having read through the replies i can see this has already been mentioned

[Jason]

sorry once again if this has already been mentioned, but the photo of the demolition and the well known photo of the outside of Marys room seem to be slightly contradictory in that the outside in the close up shot of her dwelling seems to say the building was painted white, whereas the demolition photo appears to say not. I can see other parts of the local buildings appears to still be white however from what i can make out Millers Court part of the demolition one doesnt.

[Jason]

heres what i mean :

http://photos.casebook.org/displayimage.php?album=6&pos=2

plus there is no extra window upstairs apparent on this photo...maybe it was an optical illusion on the demolition photo

[Tenth Bell]

#13 inquiries...

I've got a piece of the true cross from the partition wall if anyone's interested

What do you mean by this - and more specifically - when you make reference to the partition wall? I think it must be humour, as there is that portion of the partition [in #13] which folks have said resembles a crucifix, or cross. Do I have this correct?

Incidentally, I once worked for a sweet (older) lady who had been given a piece of [the piece] of the true cross which is in the head church in Athens. She showed it to me once - a small splinter - set in a drop of amber, inside of a small cross-shaped locket worn around the neck. (just thought I'd share that..)


Is Mary generally thought to have lived "at the back" of the court, or "in the front" of the court, as I believe I've read both versions. And the demo pic is showing us which? The back or the front of Miller's Court? Is the Dorset Street Archway meant to be the front entrance to the court, or was this a "rear passageway" out onto Dorset St.?

Please see the 3rd post down on this thread, made by Jane.

http://forum.casebook.org/showthread.php?t=4611

Thanks for any clarification.

Chris

[DrHopper]

heres what i mean :

http://photos.casebook.org/displayimage.php?album=6&pos=2

plus there is no extra window upstairs apparent on this photo...maybe it was an optical illusion on the demolition photo

Hi Jason
Yeah, i can see what you mean, but I think it is a form of optical illusion. Firstly, the bright white buildings you can see in the demolition photograph are in fact the interior of building - so the white is paint or paper, and therefore brilliant white. However, the exterior of Miller's Court is more of a dirty white, and certainly would be 80 years or so after the contemporary photographs were taken. This explains the contrast - if we are looking for a white like the interior parts of the demolition zone, the we are not going to see the dirty white of an exterior wall.

[Rixa]

I only saw this photo for the first time a month ago, and was amazed. Since it's been a couple of years since discovery, has anyone looked further into it and has it been published anywhere in greater detail? There was even mentioned the possibility of more shots having been taken the same day that might just as well be found right next to it. Would be great to see a blow-up of the most interesting bits in as much detail as the negative allows, if it still survives.

I checked for Hulton Archive. It has since moved to Getty Images, and I couldn't find the photo anymore with the online search.