Lastnightstony

The area I am living in is Famous for several things. There are contemporary art celebrities Gilbert & George who live down the way. Of course Banksy has bombed the hell out of the place. But probably the most famous artist created a body of work in September of 1888 that has transcended famous and has whose legend has made him notorious. Of course, I am talking about Jack the Ripper, or so that is what he called himself in his letters to the press.

I took the time tonight to learn some history, freeze my ass off, and walk around East London with a bunch of tourists. First off I walked down to the Tower of London again and met the group at the Tower Hill station.I have been walking around when ever I have a chance and this whole area is actually quite small. Central London is actually only a square mile. At the station I met up with Donald Rumbelow of Walk London. Apparently, he is the worlds foremost authority on the Ripper case. All I know is that if he said “Sliced her open from the vagina to the breast plate” one more time I was going to puke on some german tourists.We made our way to Aldgate and the Church he refered to as the Church of the Prostitute, Mitre square and some small alleys. To his credit, Donald can tell a story quite well even if he does do it all year round.The aptly named Happy Days Chinese Take-Out is where Jack left a message on the wall that said “This General Chow’s chicken is rubbish”. This place is down the street from me and I was hoping we would go by my place so I could grab another layer and some gloves. Sure enough, Old Jack claimed someone next door.

The area of Spitalfields used to be Hospitalfields. Where the market is across the street from here, is where they would throw out the bodies from the nearby Hospital that had to deal with the bodies that resulted from the plague. When it was excavated in the 90’s, they found huge pits that were 30 bodies deep.

This white building on the corner is the Ten Bells pub and the frequent drinking grounds of all of The Ripper’s victims. According to my buddy Oliver it is also home to the nastiest toilets in all of London. I’ll have pictures of that soon.

So basically, London has been founded on death and crime for centuries. The Jack the Ripper case probably could have been solved if it were not egos of the City police Chief and the East End Police Chief. And by the amount of people in attendance on a Tuesday night, murder is still as popular as ever.

Since I have poached Donald Rumbelow’s tour here, the least I can do is get a link to his book on here. The Complete Jack The Ripper.