I slept through breakfast and instead ate a leftover sandwich from last night.
I took the tube to the Tower Hill Stop and saw the Tower of London and Tower
Bridge. A picture of the Bridge is included in this page. Note that the picture
was taken a few days later from the Thames path (south bank) and the brightness
has been increased.
The Tower of London is a small dungeon (located off the picture to the left on
the opposite bank of the Thames) where all the political criminals were
put. It is located right on the Thames, making it easy to transfer criminals
from a boat to the dungeon. The Tower of London is a serious tourist trap. I
heard French, English, German spoken. Many groups of school children. The Tower
Bridge does still function but a week's advance notice is necessary to pass it.
An interesting engineering feat.
Today I decided that I wanted to see the streets that Jack the Ripper strode.
Not much of a role model, unlike yesterday's Sherlock Holmes, but I was still
interested. Must be my American infatuation with violence and gore. I asked the
man behind the Tube ticket window about a Jack the Ripper walk that starts from
the Tower Hill station. It is evidentally very informal because the shows up
once a week and gives the tour. Since I was not going to wait for the exact
day, I set off wandering around the eastern section of the West End and west
Whitechapel for a Jack the Ripper shop or museum. east London city is a
business district and I felt like I was in
the Matrix.
Remember the scene with the woman in red? Well, that scene was most probably
set in London's business district. Lots of black suits. For the first time I
felt out of place, with my blue jeans and T-shirt. I looked in a post office
for a Ripper brochure. No luck. I think Londoners are not proud of the Beast of
Whitechapel. I guess only morbid Americans think of it interesting history.
Giving up wandering around, I turned towards St. Katharine Docks. This cutsy
little yuppie area would be perfect if you were a white businessman with more
money than sense and who's paranoid that someone will still his money. Yuppie
HQ for London boaters. The Dicken's Inn had no brochures about historical stuff
just yachting and sailing stuff. Thoroughly demoralized at wasting a day
without finding Jack's hangouts, I stopped in a small gift shop on the Docks.
Unperturbed by school children, I went to the book section and flipped through
pages looking for a hint or best of all a map!
I found
Walking Haunted London
by Richard Jones. The book includes 25 "walks exploring London's ghostly past"
and one is the Jack the Ripper walk! The clerk told me to not do the walk at
night. She lives in the East End and it is rough. My book instructed me to take
the Tube to the Whitechapel stop. From there I could begin walking the district
that
the Beast of Whitechapel
killed when he came
From Hell.
Whitechapel Road is a busy mess compared to the organization of the West End.
The shops overflow onto the narrower sidewalks. In fact, the first time, I
missed the first right turn off of Whitechapel Road and walked to the Aldgate
East tube stop and went up Whitechapel. The turn onto the small alley Wood's
Buildings is sinister even in the afternoon. I would not be keen on walking
down this secluded alleyway during the night. Walked by two homeless people
before overpassing the train tracks and reaching Winthrop Street. I walked
around a former boarding school and looked to see where Mary Ann Nicholls' body
was found. On the very spot there were some Middle Eastern people arguing. I
figured walking up to them and asking them to move for a picture would not be a
smart thing to do. In fact, the camera stayed safely hidden in my Sainsbury
shopping bag the entire day. You can view good pictures of Jack's neighborhood
on the
Johonno webpage
(http://johnno.casebook.org/eastend.html).
Continuing on Durward Street the sun peeked out and I felt somewhat more
secure. I saw some building construction on the right side of this street and
was relieved to see normal people. I am not very racist but it is unnerving
when you are surrounded by minorities (yeah, but they're the majority in
Whitechapel) who are babbling angrily in a foreign language. I did not go far
enough north on Vallance Road so I went down Old Montague Street. Then I
proceeded north to Hanbury Street and saw the Alma Tavern. It looked like a
dive. I'll have to remember that one, good for first dates :)
On I went to see where Annie Chapman's body was found, on the corner of Brick
Lane and Hanbury. Jack decided to decorate her shoulder with her entrails. With
that thought in mind, I went over to Wilkes Street and took it south to
Fournier Street to catch up with Brick Lane again. Brick Lane felt safe because
I saw a police car (no bobbies, mind you) and a Metropolitan Police station. I
could not see the crossed frying pans in the brick gable above the Indian
restaurant. The book is five years old so the relief may be gone. I continued
down Brick Lane crossed Whitechapel and saw the site of the former St. Mary
church. The whitewashed chapel gave the name to this neighborhood. Now there is
a small park with a message cast into the walkway.
I walked past Aaron Kosminiski's house. Today he is thought the likeliest
suspect for the murders. The area where Long Liz's body was found seemed
unaffected by the passing of a century. Gaslit streetlights and cobblestone
streets and walks. Very cool. Then I returned to the Aldgate East tube stop via
Commercial Road because it was getting dark.
For dinner I bought Pedigree beer, and had chips and salsa. I watched three
programs:
A
Black Books
episode from the third series.
"A Little Flutter" was a shock for me. Bernard was addicted to gambling and did
not drink during the episode! Manny and Fran were competing for the single
employee opening. Bernard showed up once in a while to take the money. Not
humorous at all, in fact very disappointing.
