Tour 3

There is no set schedule: allow for around one hour and a half's walking then we can plan your itinerary. For added zing, this tour could be an evening excursion! It tells an extraordinary murder story that gets straight to the heart of 19thC London. Many of Jack the Ripper's old haunts survive and the tour makes the most of the landscape of Whitechapel to tell the horrible tale of London's most infamous mystery killer.

Yet the tour adds more and uses the story to delve into the special history of East End London. The social history of Whitechapel is immense. We hear about successive waves of immigration from all over the world (today the Bangladeshi community live amongst the echoes of Jewish merchants  and Hugenot weavers), the economic ups and fearful downs, terrible poverty, the role of the Church and charities, the rise of radical politics (Karl Marx's daughter led a strike here), and the current "gentrification" of properties that were once slum dwellings.

There is the chance to combine the walk with a visit to, say, the Severs House ( an Hugenot merchant's house restored), Spitalfields Market, Christ Church Spitalfields (one of the finest 18thC churches in the land), and the Whitechapel Art Gallery where Paul McCartney has exhibited. Moreover, there is an exciting variety of bars and restaurants with the Bangladeshi curry houses of Spitalfields, the 10 Bells Pub (and others), and the mass of modern eateries that now fringe the City of London finance district.