Although Mitre Square had changed an awful lot when I began operating my Jack the Ripper tour back in 1982, there is no doubt that it had a certain ambiance about it that could make it quite a creepy spot.

THE MURDER OF CATHERINE EDDOWES

It was surrounded by post-war office buildings and bore no resemblance at all to how it had been when the body of Catherine Eddowes was found in its south-west corner at 1.45 a.m. on the morning of Sunday the 30th of September 1888.

True, it did possess cobblestones, which, although probably from a later date than 1888, certainly did add an element of history to what was, largely, a nondescript location.

But you could still make your way to that south-west corner – which was often referred to as “murder corner” or “ripper corner” and stand on the site where the murder had taken place.

DEMOLITION WORK UNDERWAY

But then, in about 2016, the demolition crews arrived in Mitre Square, and bit by bit, the square as I had known it for more than 30 years began to disappear.

Once the buildings had gone, hoardings went up, and a full-scale redevelopment of Mitre Square got underway.

THE NEW SQUARE

Once the building work was completed, the hoardings came down, and the square had been completely and utterly transformed.

I have to say that, what appeared was, in many ways, far more attractive than what it had replaced, but the transformation had caused the square to lose its sinister atmosphere.

IT ALSO LOST ITS NAME

And the buildings and atmosphere were not all that Mitre Square lost. It also lost its name.

Step into it today and you will find no trace of any name – unlike before when you could find street signs that informed those who were seeking Jack the Ripper’s London that they were now in Mitre Square.

MY FILM OF THE SQUARE

In 2015, before I had any real idea that the square was going to change so much, I filmed Mitre Square for one of my walkthroughs of Jack the Ripper’s London Then and Now.

I used some of the old photographs of the square as it was at the time of the murder in order to give viewers an idea of what stood where so that they could, at least, build up a mental image of what the square had been like.

Nowadays, that film remembers two incarnations of the square.