Jack the Ripper: Whitechapel in 1888

Before dawn on 31 August 1888, carman Charles Cross walked down Buck's Row and saw what he took for a tarpaulin lying on the ground. It was the body of Mary Ann Nichols, generally thought to be Jack the Ripper's first victim. The street was renamed Durward Street that same year, because the case drew so much unwanted attention. Today a permanent entrance to Whitechapel station opens onto Durward Street, likely at the same site where she was found.

Precisión del lugar: The street name changed; the pin marks Durward Street, and the exact spot beside the old stable wall is only approximate.

Para el visitante: Durward Street is a public street beside Whitechapel station; please be quiet and respectful of residents.

On 8 September 1888 the body of Annie Chapman, generally held to be the second victim, was found in the backyard of 29 Hanbury Street. Shortly before 5 am John Richardson sat on the rear steps to trim his boot and noticed nothing; about a quarter of an hour later neighbour Albert Cadosch heard a woman say "No, no!" from the next yard. The house is gone: number 29, on the north side, was demolished, and the Old Truman Brewery now covers that block.

Precisión del lugar: Number 29 no longer exists, so the pin marks Hanbury Street near the former house.

Para el visitante: Hanbury Street is open; shops with flats above still line the south side, across from the murder site.

At about 1 am on 30 September 1888, steward Louis Diemschutz drove his horse and cart into Dutfield's Yard, off Berner Street. The horse shied away from what looked like a bundle on the ground. It was Elizabeth Stride. Her left hand still held several cachous wrapped in tissue paper. Berner Street is now called Henriques Street, and Mitre Square would follow within the hour.

Precisión del lugar: The pin marks Henriques Street, the modern name of Berner Street; the exact yard is not marked.

Para el visitante: Henriques Street is a public street in Whitechapel.

Within the hour, the Ripper's night moved to Mitre Square in Aldgate. At 1:44 am PC Watkins found Catherine Eddowes in the south-west corner, fourteen minutes after he had last passed through. He knocked on the warehouse door and called to the night watchman: "For God's sake, mate, come to my assistance!" The square is tiny, about 23 by 24 metres, and the only one of the Whitechapel murders that took place in the City of London.

Para el visitante: Mitre Square is a small public square in Aldgate.

At about 3 am, a constable found a dirty, bloodstained piece of apron in a tenement stairwell in Goulston Street. It was later confirmed as part of Catherine Eddowes's apron. Above it, someone had chalked: "The Juwes are the men that Will not be Blamed for nothing". Fearing trouble at daybreak, the police commissioner ordered the writing washed off at about 5 am, after it had been copied.

Precisión del lugar: The tenement stood on Goulston Street; the pin marks the street, not the doorway.

Para el visitante: Goulston Street is a public street in Whitechapel.

Mary Jane Kelly rented 13 Miller's Court, a single 12-foot-square room behind 26 Dorset Street, Spitalfields, with a bed, three tables and a chair. On the morning of 9 November 1888, the landlord sent Thomas Bowyer to collect the rent. Shortly after 10:45 am Bowyer looked through the window and found her body. Crowds of over 1,000 gathered at each end of Dorset Street.

Precisión del lugar: No source here gives a map position for the court, so this stop is left without a pin.

The morning Kelly was found, her neighbour Elizabeth Prater left her room at about 5:30 am and walked to the Ten Bells for a drink of rum. Some accounts say Annie Chapman may have drunk here shortly before her own murder. The Victorian pub, at 84 Commercial Street, was called "The Jack the Ripper" from 1976 to 1988 before reverting to its old name. It is a Grade II listed building and still a pub.

Para el visitante: A working pub at 84 Commercial Street; its tiled interior is Victorian.