Author: Richard Jones

Every so often, some of the everyday residents of the East End of London come to the fore in the Victorian newspapers. largely on account of the fact that they had been involved in a some for of […]

In a previous article I featured an interview with Albert Heidman, a.k.a “Shiner Bob”, who in the early 20th century gained the unenviable reputation of being the “worst man in London.” In the interview he spoke of some […]

The Pall Mall Budget, on Saturday, 24th November, 1888, published the following article that took a harsh – and it must be said offensive – view of the lives of the Whitechapel unfortunates:- THE WHITECHAPEL UNFORTUNATES “While every […]

On the night of October 16th, 1906, Inspector Francis McKay, based at Great Marlborough Street Police Station, arrested a German tailor by the name of Ferdinand Altfuldisch, in Greek Stret, Soho, and charged him with disorderly conduct. Altfuldisch, […]

The plight of the poor of Whitechapel was a theme that the newspapers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras returned to time and time again. Even before the Jack the Ripper murders focussed the attention of the world […]

The following intriguing article appeared in The Dundee Evening Telegraph on Tuesday, 26th July, 1910, and is illustrative of how people all over the world were still eager to link people they knew to the Whitechapel murders:- “JACK […]

Unsolved murders were a common occurrence in Victorian Britain. The murder of an unfortunate – a term used in the press to describe a lower class of prostitute – was an incredibly difficult crime to solve, since there […]

The Pall Mall Gazette, on Wednesday 10th January, 1883, printed two stories that highlighted the dangers of everyday life in London for its Victorian citizens. One story concerned the light of a lady who had, quite literally fallen […]

To begin with, may I wish you all a very happy 2021 and let’s hope it’s a much better year than its predecessor was. There was, of course, a great deal of uncertainty throughout 2020, but there was […]

As 1889 got underway, people across the country were reading news reports of the horrible murder of eight year old John Gill which had taken place over the Christmas period, and about which you can read in this […]