Has anyone done the Jack the Ripper tour in London?

[beckyvardy]

I'm fascinated by Jack the Ripper.

Has anyone done the tour in London?

Is it any good?

Tia

Dh did it as part of a work team building day and quite enjoyed it.

He said it was a bit vague though, walking down streets ‘this is where X happened’ etc when the place looks very different was a bit off but had interesting facts.

Please don't do this. He killed women and they talk about him like a folk legend. I used to live in London and have overhead many. They're disgusting.

Can't believe there is a tour. That's disgusting.

Why would you even?

I did one about 20 years ago. It didn’t glorify him at all. It was sympathetic towards the victims, if anything. Quite factual approach, talked about conflicts between met and city police hindering investigations etc. V interesting overall.

I've accidentally been on a "ghost walk" which touched on Jack The Ripper. Very much "and here's where x happened", x being the gruesome murder and here being an office block and/or multistorey carpark.

It isn't disgusting per se. Plenty of people have a fascination with murderous stories, historical mysteries and terrible stories of abuse and depravity. We make books, films, miniseries and documentaries devoted to the subject. JTR is oddly romanticised which is interesting and worth discussion I'll admit, but I can see why the tour holds interest outside of sensationalism.

Which one? There’s loads.

We did the one on walks.com I think. Led by the big kahuna of ripperology, Donald rumbelow.

I have and it was actually very interesting. As previous posters have said, it doesn’t glorify either the Ripper or the pretty inappropriate legend that’s been built up around his crimes and persona and to be honest if you’re “fascinated” with Jack the Ripper you probably won’t find it terribly exciting because it’s not at all sensationalist or ‘whodunnit’.

On the one I went on the guide spoke a lot about the East End of the time, showed us a lot of historical sites (which as somebody who lives in and often wanders the back streets of Whitechapel and Shoreditch I really enjoyed) and talked about their provenance. Was overall very sympathetic towards the murdered women and explained quite what life was like for London’s poor of the 19th century. Plus a bit about other notable crimes of the age. Not at all celebratory of JtR as some kind of fun murder mystery.

I've done this one Here Lindsay was the guide and she was excellent. You have to book in advance and they only allow about 10 -15 people per group, so you got a chance to ask questions and see photos.

The 2nd one was just turn up at the meeting point, well there must have been at least 50 people there, so we had to wait around until a 2nd guide turned up to take half of the group. It was disappointing to say the least, it was rushed and didn't last the length of time advertised and wasn't as detailed as the previous one. Unfortunately I can't remember who it was ran by so cant give you a link to them (so you could avoid if you wanted to)

Fascinated in that it was never solved.

So many theories.

Such bad taste

Sorry people think it's in bad taste but it was never solved. I'm obv not the only one who is interested in it as they do many many tours.

There are so many theories.

I've read lots about it and it was so long ago.

I would like to learn more about it.

Maybe fascinated was the wrong word in hindsight.

I've read a lot about it. Keen to learn more.
There are so many theories about it.

Why he was never caught is more why I am interested. The theories I have read say about all kinds of people. Royalty (understandable in my eyes why he wasn't caught), artists etc. Why he suddenly stopped.

I done this one a few years ago. Thoroughly interesting.

jack-the-ripper-tours.com

We did it, was “interesting” I wouldn’t go as far as to say enjoyable. Definitely not glorified

I've done the Donald Rumbelow one years ago. The biggest disappointment was that it was predicated on a Big Reveal of JTR's identity at the end (as PP has already said Donald is a big name in Ripperology) but I remember being distinctly underwhelmed with his final conclusion. Plus the fact that the East End has changed so much that none of the sites exist in any meaningful way anymore.