Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
13
THE WHITECHAPEL MURDERS
In eight weeks between August and November 1888, five prostitutes were stabbed to death in
and around Whitechapel. Few of the letters received by the press and police, which purported
to come from the murderer, are thought to have been genuine (including the one which
coined the nickname
Jack the Ripper
), and the murderer's identity remains a mystery to this
day. At the time, it was assumed he was a Jew, probably a
shochet
(a ritual slaughterman), since
the mutilations on the corpses were obviously carried out with some skill. The theory gained
ground when the fourth victim was discovered outside the (predominantly Jewish) Working
Men's Club off Commercial Road, and for a while it was dangerous for Jews to walk the streets
at night for fear of reprisals.
Ripperologists have trawled through the little evidence there is to produce
numerous
suspects
, none of whom can be conclusively proven guilty. The most celebrated suspect is
the Duke of Clarence, eldest son of the future Edward VII, an easy if improbable target, since he
was involved in a scandal involving a male brothel and was a well-known homosexual. Crime
writer Patricia Cornwell spent over a million dollars trying (and failing) to prove conclusively
that the Ripper was the painter Walter Sickert, who exhibited an unhealthy fascination with the
murders. The man who usually tops the lists, however, was a cricket-playing barrister named
Druitt whose body was found floating in the Thames some weeks after the last murder,
though, as usual, there is no evidence linking him with any of them.
The one
positive outcome
of the murders was that they focused the attention of the rest
of London on the squalor of the East End. Philanthropist Samuel Barnett, for one, used the
media attention to press for improved housing, streetlighting and policing to combat crime
and poverty in the area. Today, the murders continue to be exploited in gory, misogynistic
detail by the likes of Madame Tussauds and the London Dungeon, while guided walks
retracing the Ripper's steps set off every week throughout the year (see p.33).
Royal London Hospital Museum
Newark St • Tues-Fri 10am-4.30pm • Free •
T
020 7377 7608,
W
medicalmuseums.org •
!
Whitechapel
It was on the nearby Mile End Road that Joseph Merrick, better known as the
Elephant
Man
,
was discovered in a freak show in 1884 by Dr Treves, and subsequently admitted as
a patient to the
Royal London Hospital
on Whitechapel Road. He remained there, on
show as a medical freak, and was eventually allowed to live there until his death in 1890,
at the age of just 27. There's an interesting twenty-minute documentary on Merrick, and
a small section displaying, among other things, the veil and hat he wore, in the
Hospital
Museum
,
housed in the crypt of an old church
on Newark Street. The museum also
covers the history of the hospital and of nursing and medicine in general, with a section
on Edith Cavell, who trained here before assisting Allied soldiers to escape from occupied
Belgium; she was eventually arrested and shot as a spy by the Germans in 1915.
The Blind Beggar
337 Whitechapel Rd • Mon-Sat 11am-11pm, Sun noon-10.30pm • Free •
T
020 7347 6195,
W
theblindbeggar.com •
!
Whitechapel
At the eastern end of Whitechapel Road stands the handsome, gabled entrance to the
former
Albion Brewery
, where the first bottled brown ale was produced in 1899. Next
door is the former brewery tap, the
Blind Beggar
, the East End's most famous pub since
March 9, 1966, when Ronnie Kray walked into the crowded bar and shot gangland
rival George Cornell for calling him a “fat poof ”. This murder spelt the end of the
infamous Kray Twins, Ronnie and Reggie, both of whom were sentenced to life
imprisonment, though their well-publicized gifts to local charities created a Robin
Hood image that still persists.
Bethnal Green and Bow
The East End spreads out east of Whitechapel into the districts of
Bethnal Green
, to the
north, and
Bow
, to the east. The Mile End Road is just an extension of Whitechapel
