Suggestion

[GUT]

Good job Wickerman.

I think this is a rather exact description of how the bed was originally positioned in the room.

Behind the wall with the wainscoting were the stairs where people were running up and down making noise.

So I think that could be one reason why the bed was not placed directly in the corner.

Regards Pierre

Doesn't look it but could the stairs give a lower head room in the corner

[Pierre]

The Evening Express account just doesn't ring true to me. The police are not going to waste time and money sealing up a storeroom that is actually in use.

Exactly. That is my point.

And why do we have the frequent writings about this wall between the rooms as "partitioned off", "sealed off" and "cut off from the rest of the house" in the newspapers?

If it had been just a wall and nothing more, there would have been nothing to talk about.

But the police actively promoted the idea of this wall being cut off from the rest of the house.

Regards Pierre

[Pierre]

Doesn't look it but could the stairs give a lower head room in the corner

No. The staircase was on the other side of the wall.

Regards Pierre

[GUT]

No. The stairs were on the other side of the wall.

Regards Pierre

Totally???

You see that staircase looks incredibly short, under 6 foot going by the length of the bed in the plan, a staircase would normally be about double that length so is there a landng before it goes up over the bed

[Pierre]

Totally???

You see that staircase looks incredibly short, under 6 foot going by the length of the bed in the plan, a staircase would normally be about double that length so is there a landng before it goes up over the bed

Yes, probably, but the staircase is still on the other side on the wall.

Regards Pierre

[GUT]

Yes, probably, but the staircase is still on the other side on the wall.

Regards Pierre

Not in that width

[Brenda]

.

^ But we don't know when Blotchy left. The fact that Mary sang for over an hour (and that may have been a bit of an exaggeration) doesn't mean that she had Blotchy, or any other male in with her for that entire time. She may have been singing to entertain herself, because she simply liked singing when she was a bit tight.

I don't think we know enough about the habits of Victorian 'unfortunates' (especially very poor women who prostituted sometimes to get rent and food) to say categorically whether they would or wouldn't have sang to any male clients before or after the act. This would be especially so if one or the other of them was feeling merry after a few drinks.

Mary's room would have been quiet and dark (and empty) if she was absent from it for a while, surely?

Back in Mary's day and in her circumstances, there was very little in the way of entertainment. There was no radio, very few had instruments, or even books or newspapers. A lot of people back then sang as entertainment. If Mary had a nice voice, I could see a gentleman sitting back with some beer and enjoying some singing.

[DJA]

Totally???

You see that staircase looks incredibly short, under 6 foot going by the length of the bed in the plan, a staircase would normally be about double that length so is there a landng before it goes up over the bed

The plan,the plan.

Who drew the plan!

[Ben]

Returning briefly - and I do stress briefly; I don't want a simple, valid observation to spawn pages and pages of repetitive stroppy debate - to the wideawake-wearing man and the suggestion that he was among those reported to hang around Crossingham's without purpose: it might be worth remembering Sarah Lewis's observation that the man appeared to be monitoring the entrance to Miller's Court as though waiting for someone to emerge from it, which is identical to what Hutchinson later "admitted" to doing at that location. The chances of this being a mere coincidence are remarkably slim, in my view.

[Pierre]

The plan,the plan.

Who drew the plan!

Don´t know. But here´s Simon Wood´s suggestion. Without things dangling from the ceiling.

I have put the table and bed in their right positions.

Regards Pierre

[Wickerman]

This makes the room look huge, so not sure how accurate it is

Oh for sure, don't take the room size as accurate, we know it was tiny, its really the placement of the washstand behind the headboard that I was calling attention to.
All the contemporary sketches of the room are in agreement with the 'body on the bed' photo in so far as they confirm the existence of a space behind the headboard.

[Pierre]

Oh for sure, don't take the room size as accurate, we know it was tiny, its really the placement of the washstand behind the headboard that I was calling attention to.
All the contemporary sketches of the room are in agreement with the 'body on the bed' photo in so far as they confirm the existence of a space behind the headboard.

Yes, which means her head was in the "right" spot when the killer opened the door.

[Wickerman]

I don't know what you guy's & gals think, but that small window always looked like an afterthought to me. Anyone designing a house with two windows in the same room, on the same wall is surely going to make them the same height.

So why is that smaller window so low down, in fact, when you compare the height of the small window it is parallel with the height of the door around the corner.




This house has been internally modified from when it was originally built, that much we know, so I had speculated that the small window at the rear was the original back door, and the door we see around the corner is another later renovation.
If the door was originally at the back, then it is possible that a partition, or wall, existed internally, to separate the back door from the room. Giving, if you like, a passage from the front of the house to the back yard.

[GUT]

Returning briefly - and I do stress briefly; I don't want a simple, valid observation to spawn pages and pages of repetitive stroppy debate - to the wideawake-wearing man and the suggestion that he was among those reported to hang around Crossingham's without purpose: it might be worth remembering Sarah Lewis's observation that the man appeared to be monitoring the entrance to Miller's Court as though waiting for someone to emerge from it, which is identical to what Hutchinson later "admitted" to doing at that location. The chances of this being a mere coincidence are remarkably slim, in my view.

Agree.

[GUT]

The plan,the plan.

Who drew the plan!

No idea, but if it is supposed to be to scale the stairs turn, either back on themselves or at a right angle and continue on above Mary's bed.

No way that length is long enough to go up a level, nor wide enough to double back in the space shown on the plan.