Whilst out on one of my walks and whilst taking some photos for Mondays post on The Ratcliffe Highway Murders, I made it my business to hunt out a new (for me) location related to Jack The Ripper.
Hidden away in the corner of St George in The East Church, I found this.
The derelict old building above gave me the creeps for this is the very place where Elizabeth Stride had her post-mortem after her death at the hands of Jack The Ripper on the 30th September 1888, the Double Event. I won’t post it here, as the photo isn’t very pleasant but you can read about poor Long Liz on Wikipedia.
The building is in an interesting state and their plans to restore it in some fashion as in the early 20th century it went from being a mortuary to a place of learning for children to study nature and the environment!
Just to the side of the building are stacks of old gravestones. The bodies of course remain under the beautiful ‘parkland’ in front of the church.
You can see another Watchhouse where bodies were brought to in my blog from last year The Rotherhithe Watch House Cafe. Rotherhithe is almost directly across the river on the photo below, just to the right of the church spire.
I also made mention in the post on The Ratcliffe Highway Murders the Thames River Police, they are the oldest dedicated police service in the world. Whilst wondering around the banks of the Thames finding ‘treasures’, I came across the old and still fully functioning River Police.
The photo above shows the River Police Jetty, patrol and speed boats are always to be seen though happily bodies in the Thames are less of an issue than in the old days.
There is always something to discover in London and next year I will have a new tour for this part of London; for people who like their history a bit more gritty than the bright lights and mass-tourism of the West End.
Stephen Liddell 
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