52. London: Jack the Ripper


 Photo: Fish & Chip shop in Whitechapel

Today we not only nailed our unofficial steps count but doubled them - and can’t we feel it tonight!

We met my cousin Tina Carver Mead and her husband Graham Carver for lunch at the Hoop & Grapes pub, in Whitechapel - we stayed with them when we first arrived in England (in Cambridge). This pub was built in 1593 and survived the Great Fire of London in 1666 by a mere 50 yards!

Tina and I have common ancestors who lived in and near Whitechapel at the time of the Jack the Ripper (JTR) murders; and so she took us on a personal tour of where the family and subsequent families lived and worked.

And then the 4 of us did an official JTR tour, which numbered about 18-20 people. The tour was excellent. If ever you get the chance to do it, then do it!

And that folks, was today!

Commentary from some pics I posted on Facebook but without the pics:

Photo of a shop called Jack the Chipper (fish & chip shop) - There are places around the infamous Whitechapel and adjacent Spitalfields areas that have capitalised on the Jack the Ripper stories and this is one of them.

Photo of the 10 Gates to the old city of London - London was once a walled city and this picture shows the old 10 gates to the town. Parts of the wall can still be seen in a couple of places.

Photo of Tina and I outside the infamous Ten Bells pub (built around 1740s) in Whitechapel and it’s another pub Tina and my family would have frequented - it is also connected to the story of JTR.

Photo of rows and rows of wooden boxes - This is part of the JTR tour commentary. Whitechapel, at the time (1880s), was home to over 60,000 people living hand-to—mouth and in squalor, in an area that could not support or sustain them. These are called coffin beds and people rented them to sleep in; and if they died in their sleep then they would be buried in them. Another way to sleep was in rope beds, except one didn’t lie down - you sat up and rested your head over a piece of rope and slept shoulder to shoulder to the next person - you paid money for the privilege! It’s hard to comprehend how desperate people were in these times.



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