Nearly 130 years after London’s most infamous series of sex murders, can it be right to turn them into a tourist attraction? Kristina Falk and Merve Huslu consider the case of Jack the Ripper.
You know the story: in 1888 a killer nicknamed Jack the Ripper tore into a series of female prostitutes, butchering them on the streets of Whitechapel. The perpetrator was never identified; more than a century later, speculation continues as to whodunnit. Moreover, the riddle of the Ripper has become a kind of game, and the game has prompted a cottage industry of East End walking tours and tourist paraphernalia.
We went to see for ourselves if the knick-knacks have been allowed to obscure the troubling nature of the original murders.
We first heard of Jack the Ripper walks when we were looking for interesting things to do with friends visiting from overseas. We found a large number of different tour operators, all promising the most spectacular walk in London.
That’s what caught our attention: spectacular – a word which surely should not be in the same sentence as those dreadful murders.
We looked at different websites until we finally found one that seemed promising; no overblown advertisements, just an interesting webpage . We booked online and went to the meeting point later that day.
The friendly tour guide introduced himself as Rob. As he chatted with the group assembling around him, he impressed us as someone seriously concerned with his subject matter. This despite the dodgy title of the tour – Ripping Yarns.
It was a dark and rainy evening, and we were a small group; all the better for Rob’s passionate interest to be conveyed to each one of us. Instead of going through the motions, churning through the past mechanically, he made us feel part of it; but without gilding it for effect.
We learned a lot about history and law, about London in the nineteenth century, and we even got a glimpse of the passageway which appears in Harry Potter as ‘Diagon Alley’.
And no, it wasn’t all for the money, because unlike other tours operators, the Ripping Yarns company doesn’t charge you unless you’re satisfied.
As the evening went by and we learned more about London in the age of Jack the Ripper, various other groups passed us, led by ridiculous-looking tour guides in supposedly authentic costumes. “I’m not going to dress up like that for you,” quipped Rob, which earned a laugh from the whole group.
Even though we have been living in London for well over a year, Rob showed us a side we had not seen before. Both exciting and intelligent, his re-telling of the story cut through the rain and cold.
So what do we make of it all? Is it okay to entertain people with salacious tales of one of the most dreadful serial killers in the history of London? No, it is not. But what if the story of Jack the Ripper allows us to learn about this great city and get a clear glimpse of the past? That’s what we experienced on a damp, dark night in October; and although not all tours achieve anything like as much, this one comes highly recommended.