Backgroung

Sunday 16 January 2011

Jack the Ripper walking Tour

On Friday, Kerry, Robert and I went on a Jack the Ripper walk around Whitechapel.
It's something I have always wanted to do but, until now, never got round to doing.
We booked with the following company here and our guide was Anne-Marie.
This was one of the first stops on the tour and marks an area where a housing developement was built in 1886. Anne-Marie was setting the scene for the era and was explaining about the severity of the poverty - the poor, the very poor and the destitute - a time when there were @1200 prostitutes working to pay for a night in the "doss house".



The restaurant below in Brick Lane was once the Two Frying Pans ale house.


If you look closely below, you can see the pans in the red brickwork.


These buildings date back before 1888 and are now exclusive housing, a big change from several families living in one room.


Here is Kerry listening to Anne-Marie.


I loved the view below through the gate.


This is Christchurch Spitalfields. There was an aura about this place that did not want to be photographed.
My camera would not function on automatic so Kerry tried and managed to get this picture.
I had tried several times to photograph it from different points on the walk to no avail - spooky?


The pub below, The Ten Bells as was, was where a lot of the victims were drinking prior to their murder.


Spitalfields Market.


I'm sure most of you know the history of Jack the Ripper, but, if you don't, I found Wikipedia very useful.

On the way back to Bank Station, I took the following:
The Lloyds Building


The Gerkin


A Church in Cornhill


And in Fournier Street on the tour, I found this graffiti..


and a shop sign which amused me.

6 comments:

Anita said...

Sounds ( and looks) like you had a fascinating evening Linda, some super photos there. Hope to see you scrapping them. A mini album maybe? :)..xxxx

Lynn said...

Sounds like a good evening. Strange about photographing (or not) that church.

liz said...

What a spooky tour Linda - sounds very interesting. Have you seen the programmes on television about Jack the Ripper? In those times the really poor were between a rock and a hard place just to exist. Look forward to seeing the layouts. xxx

Linda said...

Liz, It was actually very humbling to walk the streets and hear how dreadful it must have been then. Makes you very glad for all you have today for sure.

Claire said...

Looks like you had a good night, I love doing things like that, the ghost tours in Edinburgh are my favourite.
C
xx

Alix said...

oooh i've always fancied doing this tour...lovely to see all your photos!