Jack the Ripper Tour
On our first evening at London we decided to do a Jack the Ripper walking tour conducted by London Walks. Actually we'd decided while still in France that this was one of the must do things while we were in London. Sound twisted? It probably is but is equally a fascinating walk through London's East End and we enjoyed it. And we certainly weren't the only warped individuals to do it either. I estimate that there were at least fifty people for the tour that night, in fact we were divided into two groups so as to be manageable! One of the guides was a Jack the Ripper specialist so the majority of people seemed to want to go with him. We decided to forgo this in favour of the second smaller group.
The tour took about 2 hours and lead from crime scene to crime scene (though some of the old buildings have now vanished), each giving a bit of history about the victims (and some gory details) before ending with various Ripper theories.
Like this church. Unfortunately neither of us can remember the name but it is where the victims (all prostitutes) looked for clients by walking laps around this church or block. In that era the East End was a place of extreme poverty and slums (as well as the Jewish quarter) and it's been estimated that 1 in 8 or 9 women there were prostitutes in order to survive.
The tour takes you through both large and narrow streets. This one is Artillery Alley and is close to the Synagogue. Now just imagine a street like this misty and hazy from peat fires and not being able to see anyone but only hear them! Creepy! That's what it was like in the 18th century.
I thought the church above might have been whitechapel (well it's white!) but it's the Christ Church. The tour takes you down this street and beside the 'The Ten Bells' pub, a pub that existed already in the 18th century.
During the tour we met two Canadians from Montreal, John and Christine. Christine reminded us of our friend Valerie and so naturally we chatted etc. At the end of the tour they asked if we wanted to have a drink with them in one of the pubs (not 'the Ten bells'). A few minutes later found us drinking pints of cider and beer (and me on the way to being tipsy-drunk) on the benches outside the pub. It was pleasant and the time passed so quickly that before we knew it, it was already 11.30pm! Being tired and wanting to reenergize ourselves for the next day, we took our leave and made our way back to the hostel via the nearest underground station.
As it happens in epilogue, we'd given our number to John who was travelling Europe and going to be in Paris for a couple of days (Christine lives in London). A few days after we'd been back he rang and we all went out and wandered the around St Michel for a while before having a drink and going home (almost missed the last train too! Whoops!) which was cool.
