Did You Miss Jack the Ripper?
Yesterday we decided to take a few steps away from Jack the Ripper and give you the opportunity to see a bit of Beatles London with a trip to the Abbey Road Crossing.
Today we’re returning to the east End of London as Richard Jones takes you to the site of the murder of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth victim of Jack the Ripper.
Catherine’s body was found in a dark corner of Mitre Square on the 30th September 1888.
The body was discovered by beat officer P C Watkins as he entered the Square at 1.45am. He immeditaely went racing across the square to alert the night watchman of a warehouse that looked down of Mitre Square.
It was the night watchman who went running off to alert other police officers of the murder.
It was customary in 1888 for the police officer who discovered the body to stay with the body. Often he would blow his whistle which woukd bring nearby officers to the scene and it would be one of them that would go off to raise the alarm.
Mitre Square itself has changed a great deal since 1888, or at least the buikdings that surrounded it have. But the cobblestones over which PC Watkins walked are still there and this coupled with the photographs of the Square at the time of the murder that we pass around on our Jack the Ripper Tour help give you a vivid impression of what Mitre Square was like at the time of the murder.