Do you remember the summer? I think it fell on a Thursday this year.
This time last week I was putting the finishing touches to my latest book of walks around London and was out near Heathrow Airport on Harmondsworth Moor. What an intriguing place. The moor is a stones throw from the airport and yet it is lovely, secluded and truly rural. It is also dotted with fragments of old Waterloo Bridge which was taken down in 1935 and replaced with the current bridge which, incidentally, has the distinction of having been built by women.
It was a lovely warm and sunny day and it seemed that we were in for an Indian summer.
How things have changed. A weather front has swept in, heavy rain is tumbling from the skies and gale force winds are being forecast. In other words, it’s the perfect weather to take a Jack the Ripper Tour through the streets of the East End of London.
There is something about the old, cobbled alleyways of Spitalfields and Whitechapel in the rain that gives them a completely different look. They become even more atmospheric than they normally are, and, it has to be said, they are very atmospheric.
But the rain gives them a completely different hue, and you honestly do get more of the ambience of the 1880’s when the ripper was loose in the streets and alleyways of the area. There’s atmosphere and menace aplenty in the streets.
Obviously it’s advisable to wrap up and prepare yourself for the walk. Rain wear and/or an umbrella are essential. But, if you’ve prepared and dressed accordingly (and you can see the London weather forecast for the next few days on our website) then you really will enjoy the Jack the Ripper Walk and, even though it might as well rain throughout the end of September you’ll be one of the lucky few to see the streets of the East End at their spine chilling best.