Today is the anniversary of what has come to be known as “the night of the double murder.”
It was in the early hours of 30th September 1888 that the body of Elizabeth Stride, Jack the Ripper’s third victim, was found in Dutfield’s Yard, off Berner Street; and the body of Catherine Eddowes, Jack the Ripper’s fourth victim, was found in Mitre Square in the City of London.
Our London walks will be following on the trail of Jack the Ripper tonight at 7pm, and will tell you the full history of this series of East End murders.
The Jack the Ripper Tour is a fascinating look at the social history of a quarter of London that has its own distinctive feel and even flavour.
At the time of the Jack the Ripper murders it was a melting pot for many different nationalities, many of whom were low class Eastern European Jews fleeing persecution in Russia and Poland.
In addition it was also home to a huge criminal underclass who had a vested interest in lending as little assistance to the police as possible.
But the night of the double murder had another impact on society as a whole in Victorian London.
Many of the more “respectable” middle class and upper class citizens of London, who lived a good distance away from the district where the murders were occurring, had long believed that a revolution was inevitable. Furthermore they believed that if that revolution occurred it would come out of the slum districts of the East End of London.
On our London walks that explore the streets where the crimes occurred we explain how, up until 30th September 1888, these middle class citizens might gaze nervously towards the East End of London and the events that were occurring there, but it didn’t impact directly on their lives because there was a very district boundary between the East End and the City of London.
But,as we point out on our City of London walks, in the early hours of 30th September, not only did Jack the Ripper murder twice in less than an hour, and right under the noses of police officers who were searching for him, but he also crossed the boundary and murdered Catharine Eddowes in the City of London.
Thus, in the minds of the middle and upper classes, he became a manifestation of all their nebulous fears that they had about the east End of London. Because if the ripper could cross into the City of London and strike at the heart of polite society, then what was to stop the great mass of dispossessed, poverty stricken East Enders doing likewise.
So the 30th September was a turning point that saw the fear of the unknown miscreant spread all across London and into the national consciousness in a way that no lone killer had done before and would never do again.
So why not join us on one of our Jack the Ripper Tours, or enjoy some of our other East End London walks?
