an evening stroll in the East End

‘twas a dark and stormy night! …actually it wasn’t. The sun was setting over a clear skied London, throwing a golden light on the Tower and Sam and I were standing at the entrance to Tower Hill Underground station awaiting the start of the Jack the Ripper walking tour.

It was one of those things I had been meaning to do since I arrived, but it took the presence of a visitor to get it happening. The tour is conducted by London Walks (http://www.walks.com) who do a huge number of these type of things all over the city. I have done 3 now and they have all been great… but enough of the advertisement.
The tour was led by Angela, an Irish woman of substantial vocal capability. As she led us through the now gentrified streets of the East End she did her best to bring to life the dark, foggy world of the Ripper amongst the 1960’s office blocks and the roar of peak hour traffic. It wasn’t until we skulked down a side alley away from busy Aldgate to Mitre Square and the actual spot of one of the murders did she finally capture everyone. From here we stuck to back alleys which grew slightly creepy in the growing dark of evening despite the city bustling all around. Even in 2008 some of these lanes and alleys are isolated dark. Our guides graphic description of the 5th and final murder in a tiny alley off Artillery Lane provides the climax for the walk before we move to the final location, Christ Church Spitalfields (an edifice by Architect Nicholas Hawksmoor dating from the early 18th century) on one of the few street corners of the East End virtually unchanged since the Ripper’s time. The tour ends with a bit of supposition into who he might have been and the background of a few of the many suspects. Still know one know and it seems the lack of physical evidence still in existence will likely keep it that way. That of course does not stop the guesses… apparently he could even be buried in Brisbane, according to a recent article in the Courier Mail.