If you’ve joined me from MrsB’s Haunted Blog Tour welcome and blessed be!
I’m a Londoner and although I no longer live there I have a love of the city which pulses through my veins. Especially, the darker, bloody side of a city which has stood for hundreds of years. There have been plagues, executions galore and grisly murders. And as Halloween approaches, with the evenings falling dark quickly and the air becoming so cool you can see your breath, I’m taken back in time to autumn 1888 when a new terror took hold of the city.
Several years ago we were back in London, before the time of Tabitha when we actually had a social life, one of our best evenings out was a Jack the Ripper walk.
We chose a crisp, chilly autumn evening, just before Halloween, to walk around the dimly lit streets of the East End where Jack himself had once trod and viciously took the lives of those unfortunate women. We met our walk guide, a theatrical chap dressed as any well-to-do Victorian gentleman might be, outside Tower Hill tube station.
Soon we were being ushered past the remaining Roman wall and through a dark alleyway separating respectable London with the poor, run down area that was once over run with prostitutes, rogues, taverns and work houses.
You can no longer see the buildings where the bodies were found as they have long since been redeveloped. But the streets still exist and you can walk where Jack hacked and the ladies life flowed in bloody rivulets from them. There is modern lighting where gas lamps once lit walkways but no amount of halogen power can disperse the eerie, sinister feeling of Jack’s spirit. He stalks you; mocks you as you look in morbid awe at the sites of those grisly crimes.
It’s easy to imagine the dirty, cramped streets of yesteryear. As you walk through modern day London, you expect to stumble across the body of Mary Ann Nichols whose life may have been saved if she’d only had the 4 pence needed to get a bed for the night. After being turned away from the lodging house, and still tipsy from an evening of drinking at the pub, she met the man she’d hoped would pay her for sex and subsequently shelter until morning. Instead she gained eternal slumber.
And as you walk in front of a multi storey car park the echos of the past call you to look closely at the ground level. In 1888 Annie Chapman was found mutilated on the steps of a back yard in Hanbury Street – a place now home to commuters cars.
A few of the buildings still exist on Henriques Street, formerly Berner Street, where Swedish prostitute Elizabeth ‘Long Liz’ Stride met with her attacker. She was found with blood still gushing from her wounds; her demise so fresh. And yet still there was time for the Ripper to escape and move on, that very same night, to his next victim.
Catherine Eddowes had spent most of the night in the cells at Bishopsgate police stations after being found lying drunk in the road. After she’d sobered up, she was let out to return home but decided to head to Aldgate. She was seen talking to a man at the entrance of Mitre Square at 1.35 am. Just 10 minutes later her mutilated body, with organs removed, was discovered. The site of the grim discovery is now the entrance to an office block.
The scene of Jack’s last official murder is now a modern fruit market. The hustle and bustle of the day leaves an empty feeling at night and you can feel the tension in the air: the residual energy of pure evil hovering above the place of a most brutal murder. Back in the time of Mary Jane Kelly the buildings were close together and her room was on the ground floor. After spending a night loudly singing, in the early hours her room became quiet with only the single cry of ‘murder’ being heard by her neighbours in the room above. Poor Mary Jane was no more.
Jack the Ripper still remains unidentified. His victims are still remembered. And the horror of a bygone time lurks just so very thinly below the surface in a city which won’t, or can’t, put Jack to rest.
I’m coming in thanks to Mrs. B. Wonderful post–I can totally imagine the settings as you describe them, and wonder how many people pass those locations each day oblivious to what occurred there so long ago. I’m going to post your button on my website.
Sabrina´s last blog ..Tuonetar
The tours are really interesting and unless you did a walk you’d probably have no clue about what happened all those years ago. The walks end at a pub which has changed little since Jack’s times and it’s where some of his victims liked to drink!
Thanks for grabbing my button – have done likewise
Love your post and yes I’m here from Mrs. Bs you tell it so well I can feel the tension left behind. Thanks so much for sharing!
What a thrilling story! Jack the Ripper is one of the more interesting killers to read about. Thanks for sharing. Your blog looks great!
Tori´s last blog ..Look What I Got!
visiting from Mrs B’s! i’m so glad i did!
Diane´s last blog ..Musical Monday – What Moves You?
I popped in from Mrs. B blog tour, and wanted to say hello. I love the post on Jack the Ripper. It sounds like this area would be creepy to explore, but make for a fun tour. Thanks for telling us about it.
Patty´s last blog ..Up Coming Ghost Stories
I LOVED this story! Although I live in Canada, I am a Ripperologist at heart. I even made my husband get the Whitechapel miniseries that was on BBC for me. I have watched it so many times! Thank you for a wonderful read….
Dianna
It really gets to you, doesn’t it? After the tour I read anything I could on the Ripper and had to watch From Hell several times. It had * almost * nothing to do with Johnny Depp and his seriously cool English accent
visiting from mrs B’s blog – loved the story – thanks
ELLIE´s last blog ..GIVEAWAY FOR A BIRTHDAY
I love the Ripper lore! Have you read the Patricia Cornwell book about this?
Oh, and everyone who’s posted from my blog here earns another entry to all the giveaways today!
Thanks for hosting us today!
Mrs.B.´s last blog ..On the 5th Day of Halloween….
I’ve read Patricia Cornwell’s book – enjoyed it immensely! Not sure I go with her theory but really who knows? Watched a programme some while ago about a man’s theory that Jack was actually a member of the Freemasons and killed his victims to form a pentagram. Interesting but not sure I believe that one either!!
Also visiting from Mrs. B, and I must say this was a fascinating post! Blessed be to you too!
Anne Johnson´s last blog ..What I’m All About
I loved this post! You make it come to life as if I was there on the walk with you! I’m glad Mrs. B’s sent me this way, I’ll be back!
Aedd´s last blog ..
Fantastic! I am so glad I stopped by again – I visited this morning to see the wonderful full moon picture…and closing out the day with such a great description of Jack the Ripper is pretty cool!
So amazing to think that Jack was never found. Also amazing to imagine life going on in the very spots. Some part of me would think that we folks would feel the spirit of things gone by. But if we could feel things gone by, everywhere we go, that would be quite distracting from the life’s we live, eh.
Spirithelpers
Tammie´s last blog ..Bed of Pebbles
Jack the Ripper is truly a fascinating murderer, isn’t he? I loved reading this post, and I feel I need to read some more about Jack now. The only thing I’ve ever really seen about him is the movie FROM HELL, but I’ve always been morbidly drawn to his story–sort of like Lizzie Borden here in the States!
Rose´s last blog ..Tarot Tuesday 10-6-09