Jack the Ripper: Then and Now

It’s been 128 years since Jack the Ripper terrorised the streets of Whitechapel, stalking his victims in the darkened alleyways and committing his heinous crimes. It’s been 128 years since the deaths of the Canonical Five made sensational headlines; it’s been 128 years since the killer vanished without a trace, leaving behind a serial killer legacy like no other.

Looking around the East End of London today, a hive of activity, businesses thriving, students learning and locals going about their everyday lives; it’s hard to imagine the cobbled streets with horse and carts, a killer waiting in the shadows.

Our Jack the Ripper tour is the perfect way to take you back in time to 19th century London, as it was then. Our expert guides are bona fide Ripperologists with Ripper-Vision technology in their tour arsenal. They know the facts, the theories, the suspects, the victims and the entire story inside and out. They can bring this notorious criminal and his story to life, punctuated with real scene of crime photos, projections and much more besides.

But for further insight into life in the East End of London, 1888, please read on…

“The daylight hours are thick with poverty and disease, the only thing that chases the demons away is a drink in the Ten Bells in the evening before a night trying to make ends meet with strangers.

The news of a killer in our midst – targeted us working girls – hasn’t had much of an effect on business. The men still come, and we’re still in desperate need of money to keep us off the streets. Yet, you can’t help but think with every new customer that this could be it, it could be me next.

I should have my wits about me, but I drink to escape; I miss my family, my children and a home of my own. I’ve loved and lost, and all I have now is the clothes that I wear and a mattress to bed down on in half-way accommodation. I should care more, but it’s hard.

People around me that I see day in, day out are falling ill, dying or being brutally murdered by the Ripper; it almost seems like it’s the only way out of the poverty-stricken East End slums.

The atmosphere is palpable on the streets, but that doesn’t stop me. I’ve a bellyful of gin keeping me warm, getting through until the sun rises and another day dawns. I’ve made it through to another day, time to sleep away my blues and start over again this evening.”

To find out more about life in 1888, join us on our daily Jack the Ripper tour; details can be found here.