The Jack the Ripper Police Station

Everyday in a street called Old Jewry, that is located just a stone’s throw away from the Bank of England, people rush by an old iron gate without realising that it has a connection with the Jack the Ripper Murders.

The red brick building that was the headquarters of the City Police during the Jack the Ripper Murders.
Former Police HQ

Looking through the gate you get a view of an old, sturdy looking brick building that has now been converted into offices.

However, this was once the headquarters of the City of London Police and it was in this building were based the police officers who investigated the murder of Catherine Eddowes, the fourth of Jack the Ripper’s victims.

There were, in fact, two police forces that investigated the Jack the Ripper Murders. All of the murders. with the exception of Catherine Eddowes, took place on Metropolitan Police territory and were therefore investigated by officers of that force whose headquarters were at Scotland Yard.

But the fact that Catherine Eddowes was murdered in Mitre Square, which is in the City of London, meant that the City Police also became involved in the hunt for Jack the Ripper.

Within a few moments of the discovery of Catherine Eddowes body the City Police were hot on the killers trail and were trying to track his escape route through the East End of London.

They had a pretty good idea of which way he had gone because he, in fact left a clue in a doorway in Goulston Street. This clue was a piece of bloodstained apron that had been taken from the body of the Mitre Square victim.

The killer, having escaped from Mitre Square, and knowing that the police would soon be after him, was probably heading home. As he went he cleaned his hands on this piece of his victims apron, which he then deposited in the doorway in Goulston Street. This suggests that he was somebody who actually lived in the area, as opposed to being someone who came into the area to commit his murders.