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Original poster

Jack the Ripper tour recommendation

29 replies

reluctantbrit · 01/08/2023 17:39

Does anyone have a recommendation for a good Jack the Ripper tour, suitable for adults and 16 year olds.

DD is very interested in historical murders and really wants do to a tour. But with so many out there, which ones are actually worth it?

OP posts:
SuspiciousDuck · 02/08/2023 09:18

Maybe one that doesn’t glorify murder and respects the fact that there were real women being sensationalised as part of this ghoulish tourism?

Sorry 😣 I have some strong views about the Ripper industry - sure someone will be along soon to give you a proper answer!

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 02/08/2023 09:29

Second that @SuspiciousDuck These were daughters, wives, mothers and siblings who died in pain and fear. Not fodder for gruesome titillation.

OP - suggest you and your daughter read The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold. Did a blog review of it.

https://enoughofthistomfoolery.wordpress.com/2022/05/13/book-review-the-five-the-untold-lives-of-the-women-killed-by-jack-the-ripper-halle-rubenhold/

HellonHeels · 02/08/2023 09:33

SuspiciousDuck · 02/08/2023 09:18

Maybe one that doesn’t glorify murder and respects the fact that there were real women being sensationalised as part of this ghoulish tourism?

Sorry 😣 I have some strong views about the Ripper industry - sure someone will be along soon to give you a proper answer!

This! Was going to respond in the same way but PPs have said it all.

TaigaSno · 02/08/2023 10:36

@reluctantbrit Look up London Walks, their website is walks.com. The tour guides are all blue badge holders, giving excellent tours. They have a great variety of tours to choose from, Jack the Ripper and plenty more. I've done a lot with them and recommend.

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 02/08/2023 11:09

My mind's boggling at what a 'good' JTR tour involves. Audios of the victims' screams as they're being butchered?

PurpleParrotfish · 02/08/2023 11:13

What everyone else said - there's so much fascinating history in London, and good walking tours, please try and steer her away from Ripper tourism that treats real women's murders as a fun side show and glorifies them.

Willmafrockfit · 02/08/2023 11:16

i went on a really good one, as recommended on mumsnet!
sympathetic to the women,

with Viator,

FarEast · 02/08/2023 11:19

Please DON’T

Don’t encourage the exploitation of murdered women. Let them rest in peace FFS.

If you want good solid thoughtful history, try the Coram Foundling museum in Bloomsbury.

But the sooner these awful misogynist Kack the Ripper tours stop, the better.

FordKent · 02/08/2023 11:19

We used to pass one of the murder sites walking to Whitechapel station. I did not form a high opinion of 'those tourists'

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 02/08/2023 11:23

FarEast · 02/08/2023 11:19

Please DON’T

Don’t encourage the exploitation of murdered women. Let them rest in peace FFS.

If you want good solid thoughtful history, try the Coram Foundling museum in Bloomsbury.

But the sooner these awful misogynist Kack the Ripper tours stop, the better.

I worked in the City of London in the 90s, and the London Dungeon advertised a 'Ripper Experience.' It was inundated with furious complaints from women pointing out the 'experience' of the victims. LD has form for this, unfortunately.

philautia · 02/08/2023 11:23

Please don't encourage your child in this interest. A historical tour, yes of course! But absolutely do not go on a tour to further exploit exploited, murdered women.

They were human beings - someone's daughter, mother, sister.

Original poster
reluctantbrit · 02/08/2023 19:11

Thanks. This is why I asked. I absolute hate the sensational ones. DD is a huge history nerd and definitely wants to go for the history of Whitechapel. She got into it when her sociology class did a session on crime in the Victorian times and the reasons for it, especially connected to poverty.

I look up the London Walks.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain She got the book for her birthday. With "good" I meant one which is thorough on the history and not a sensational explotation of the women.

@FarEast We have been to the Foundling Museum already.

OP posts:
FarEast · 02/08/2023 19:27

If she’s interested in the 19th century then I’d recommend a visit to the Geffrye (I think it may have been renamed). Also the Dennis Severs House - mostly 18th C but gets to the 19th C and is completely mad. I sometimes do a visit with my undergrads and we discuss the historiography of what Severs did with the house. For a really absorbing 18th C house-museum, I always take visitors to the John Soane Museum.

FarEast · 02/08/2023 19:27

If she’s interested in the 19th century then I’d recommend a visit to the Geffrye (I think it may have been renamed). Also the Dennis Severs House - mostly 18th C but gets to the 19th C and is completely mad. I sometimes do a visit with my undergrads and we discuss the historiography of what Severs did with the house. For a really absorbing 18th C house-museum, I always take visitors to the John Soane Museum.

Original poster
reluctantbrit · 02/08/2023 19:50

@FarEast We did the Geffrey's (I think it's now called Museum of the Home) a couple of years ago but maybe worth a new visit.

I found the Dennis Severs house disappointing. I know it's designed with a different mindset than a normal stately home or similar but I just couldn't find any enthusiasm for it.

I totally forgot the John Soane museum. I have been there aeons ago, need to look into it.

OP posts:
daisychaindays · 02/08/2023 19:54

MrsDanversGlidesAgain · 02/08/2023 09:29

Second that @SuspiciousDuck These were daughters, wives, mothers and siblings who died in pain and fear. Not fodder for gruesome titillation.

OP - suggest you and your daughter read The Five, by Hallie Rubenhold. Did a blog review of it.

https://enoughofthistomfoolery.wordpress.com/2022/05/13/book-review-the-five-the-untold-lives-of-the-women-killed-by-jack-the-ripper-halle-rubenhold/

I was going to mention The Five too. It's an excellent book. It's possible to interested in true crime and also be respectful of victims.

RashOfBees · 02/08/2023 20:06

For true crime that illuminates the period rather than salaciously dwelling on gore, I recommend Kate Summerscale’s books The Suspicions of Mr Whicher and The Wicked Boy. Arthur and George by Julian Barnes is also excellent, albeit a fictionalised account of a real case.

Dabralor · 02/08/2023 20:22

Scrap the exploitative tour, settle in at a nice cafe bar on the south Bank and immerse yourself in Hallie's book Five. Take in the closest thing you will get to the testimonies of those women and allow them some dignity in their deaths.

Original poster
reluctantbrit · 02/08/2023 21:38

Dabralor · 02/08/2023 20:22

Scrap the exploitative tour, settle in at a nice cafe bar on the south Bank and immerse yourself in Hallie's book Five. Take in the closest thing you will get to the testimonies of those women and allow them some dignity in their deaths.

If you argue like this then you shouldn't visit WWI battlefields or concentration camps.

I think if there is a historic walk explaining the circumstances of Whitechapel in the Victorian age and the history of the women then I think it is not different to visiting a museum.

I work in the City and for years spent my lunchbreak in summer in a park which is always on the tour of walks and the guides do very interesting talks and I often learnt little bits I never came across before.

For me history is more than reading a book about it as long as you keep it dignified.

OP posts:
parietal · 02/08/2023 22:00

if you want grisly stuff, visit the Old Operating Theatre
https://oldoperatingtheatre.com/

and the Wellcome Trust Museum also has some pretty weird history stuff too.

View of the old operating theatre from the back

The Old Operating Theatre

Museum & Herb Garret

https://oldoperatingtheatre.com

Dabralor · 02/08/2023 23:14

reluctantbrit · 02/08/2023 21:38

If you argue like this then you shouldn't visit WWI battlefields or concentration camps.

I think if there is a historic walk explaining the circumstances of Whitechapel in the Victorian age and the history of the women then I think it is not different to visiting a museum.

I work in the City and for years spent my lunchbreak in summer in a park which is always on the tour of walks and the guides do very interesting talks and I often learnt little bits I never came across before.

For me history is more than reading a book about it as long as you keep it dignified.

Show quote history

I'm not going to apologise or engage in whataboutery for suggesting that a tacky walking tour of sites where vulnerable women were brutally murdered is in bad taste.

FarEast · 03/08/2023 06:53

The tours of concentration camps are the intellectual and touristic opposite of the Jack the Ripper tours.

Original poster
reluctantbrit · 03/08/2023 07:05

Well, I already said, I am looking into the historical ones and that I defintiely do not want a tacky/sensational one.

I think I close this subject. Thanks everyone.

OP posts:
cloudydays97 · 03/08/2023 07:07

I think people criticising the OP are being over sanctimonious. It's fine to want to go on a tour
OP hope you and your daughter have a great time.

BooksAndHooks · 03/08/2023 07:15

They do a JR walk at school as part of the Crime and Punishment GCSE module. Not sure which one they use. We did one last year but it wasn’t great, my Great grandparents were living there at the time in the same street as one of the victims so it was interesting from that perspective of what it was like then.

To be honest even some of the history walks we’ve done haven’t been that informative, I think if you are interested in something it’s probably better to research yourself the elements you are interested in then do your own walk. Cuts out all the dramatic glorification.