Jack the Ripper
Whitechapel's darkest corners, and the pubs that know too much.
About This Crawl
Whitechapel, 1888. The East End's fog-shrouded streets held secrets that still echo today. This crawl takes you through the pubs where the victims drank, where suspects were questioned, and where Victorian London confronted its darkest hour. Not for the faint-hearted in any sense.
Logistics
In Memoriam
The Five Victims
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Jack the Ripper
- 1The White Hart — 89 Whitechapel High St, E1 7RA
Martha Tabram was drinking at The White Hart on the night of 7 August 1888 before she was murdered in George Yard - the alleyway next door, now Gunthorpe Street. Tabram's killing is considered by many Ripperologists to be the first in the Whitechapel series. The cellar housed the barber shop of Severin Klosowski, later convicted as the serial poisoner George Chapman, and named as a Ripper suspect by the officer who arrested him.
→ 3 min walk
- 2The Ten Bells — 84 Commercial St, E1 6LY
The most famous pub in Ripper history. Annie Chapman was seen drinking here alone on the morning of 8 September 1888, hours before her body was found on Hanbury Street. Mary Jane Kelly was a regular and picked up clients on the pavement outside. The pub was renamed "The Jack the Ripper" in 1976 and reverted after a Reclaim the Night campaign in 1988. The original Victorian ceramic tiling, including a painted mural of "Spitalfields in ye Olden Time", is intact and stunning.
→ 1 min walk
- 3The Culpeper — 40 Commercial St, E1 6LP
The Culpeper (formerly The Princess Alice) is the pub where John Pizer, known as "Leather Apron", threatened local women with a knife and became the first prime Ripper suspect in September 1888. He was cleared at Annie Chapman's inquest. Frances Coles, the last official victim of the Whitechapel Murders, was last seen alive leaving here in February 1891. The building has been heavily refurbished and is now a gastropub, but it sits on ground soaked in the case.
→ 5 min walk
- 4The Pride of Spitalfields — 3 Heneage St, E1 5LJ
Then called the Romford Arms, this was the local of George Hutchinson, the witness who gave police an extraordinarily detailed description of a man he claimed to have seen with Mary Kelly on the night of her murder, 9 November 1888. Some researchers consider Hutchinson himself a suspect. The pub is one of the last unreconstructed Victorian boozers in Spitalfields. CAMRA's East London Pub of the Year, 2013.
→ 6 min walk
- 5The Golden Heart — 110 Commercial Street, E1 6LZ
The Golden Heart is a Grade II listed pub on the corner facing Spitalfields Market, in the heart of Ripper territory. Built in 1936 for Truman's Brewery with a largely unaltered interior, it sits steps from several murder sites and a short walk from Durward Street (formerly Buck's Row) where Polly Nichols was found. Run independently by the same landlady for over 30 years. A proper East End local to end the crawl.