Afternoon Jack the Ripper Guided Tour

A fun light hearted tour. Our guide was very informative and eadt to listen to.

Our guide was more sympathetic for the victims than the usual Ripper books. Also you need to walk these streets to get a feeling of the relative locations of the crime scenes. TEN BELLS Pub and the neighborhood church are still there. Most of the original streets have been obliterated by the Blitz or Urban Renewal so the connections to the original crime scenes are not obvious but you can still see the original doorway which Dark Annie Chapman entered but didn't exit alive. It's not mentioned but you will start on a corner of Whitechapel Street where late one night "non-canonical victim" Emma Smith started running up Brick Lane to the corner of Wentworth (where you will also turn) but she couldn't outrun her vicious pursuers. I am sure that it is safe enough now -- during the day.

Great information and a perfect way to see Whitechapel. And it was nice to do during the day instead of at night.

Gabby was a wealth of knowledge giving detailed background as well as the details of the crimes.

The Ripper is a fascinating and essential part of London history. The story in depth tells a lot about the vast, horribly impoverished underclass which inhabited London before WWII. Anybody fascinated by The Ripper stories and the grimy vision of horse-drawn, coal-fired London will want to visit this part of the East End. BUT you definitely need a guide like Bettina. The East End was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe and then afflicted by poorly executed urban renewal thereafter. I'm not sure which catastrophe was worse. I couldn't recognize most of the streets from the Ripper histories: the notorious Dorset Street is completely gone; Flower and Dean Street was rerouted. We didn't get to visit Polly Nichols or Liz Strides' death scenes; they are too far away and unrecognizable. BUT you CAN see the ORIGINAL doorway where Annie Chapman entered and did not emerge alive. We walked down a few narrow streets and alleys which added to the atmosphere. Bettina showed us where the ultra-slummy crime scene for Mary Kelly's murder has been replaced by a plaza surrounded by steel and glass office buildings. The derelicts and prostitutes have been replaced by lawyers and insurance execs; I hate seeing a neighborhood go downhill! The Ten Bells Pub is still there but the clientele has changed. During the murders a Men's and Women's Shelter was nearby, the building is still there! Our guide, Bettina, was mostly patient with my questions and she caught me up on one of her questions, I am not a real Ripperologist. She also engaged me on a few points, on which I was previously dismissive, regarding HER favorite suspect. We'll never catch him -- or her? -- or them? -- but this was a great alternative to just reading a few books. You will also want to revisit Brick Lane just for the incredible restaurant scene, I'm sure that the corner of Brick Lane and Wentworth Street is safe enough now.