Philip Hutchinson
Philip comes from Hampshire and has a life-long interest in the macabre and the unpleasant, which began with a trip to Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors when he was six years old. He began reading true crime books in his teens and followed this up by making day trips to London to visit the scenes of notorious homicides.
A RIPPER HISTORIAN SINCE 1990
He has been a Ripper historian since 1990 but his deeper interest was kick-started when he worked as an actor at The London Dungeon in 1998.
He has now been guiding Jack the Ripper tours as a freelance guide for 11 years.
He has lectured on the case in many places in the UK (often touring his one-man lecture ‘Jack the Ripper: Facts, No Fiction’, which received a five-star review from Broadway Baby at the Brighton Fringe in 2013) including the City of London Police HQ, and in America.
The emcee of The Whitechapel Society for many years, Philip has also given talks on various aspects of the case at several international conferences.
PHILIP’S JACK THE RIPPER QUIZ
Philip has also compiled a quiz for those who have joined him on his acclaimed Jack the Ripper tour which gives them the opportunity to demonstrate how many of the interesting facts and snippets of information they can remember from the walk.
The quiz consists of 10 questions each of which deals with a particular fact or observation that was mentioned by Philip on his perambulation around the Jack the Ripper murder sites.
CLICK HERE TO TAKE PHILIP’S QUIZ
OWNER OF A UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIC ARCHIVE
The owner of the revered ‘Whitby Collection’ and discoverer of the only known photograph of the actual murder spot of Ripper victim Liz Stride, Philip has written several books on the case.
He is the co-author of the highly esteemed ‘The London of Jack the Ripper Then and Now’ and sole author of ‘The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield’s Yard and The Whitby Collection’.
The former was the best-selling Ripper book on Amazon UK for half a year when it was first published, was used as a prop in the ITV series ‘Whitechapel’ and is even used as a textbook for GCSE History at some schools.
INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED BY THE BIBLE OF RIPPER STUDIES
Philip even has the distinction of being one of only three Ripper tour guides who are singled out for a mention in, and who are, therefore, recommended by, the Bible of Ripper studies, ‘The Jack the Ripper A-Z.’
As has been pointed out by many newspapers and other London walks, to receive a plaudit in the pages of this, the most respected source book on the subject, you must truly be “internationally recognised”, as a leading authority on Jack the Ripper.
Many of our clients have also used his books to hunt down specific locations in the East End of London that are linked to the case and, in this respect alone, it his books have proved a valued and invaluable resource.
His tours are renowned for being full of detail, passionate, enthusiastic, friendly, slick and – unusually for the subject matter – infused with a lot of sardonic dark humour. His style of delivery and love of myth-busting has made him very popular with groups over the years.
AN IN DEMAND GUIDE
Many annual bookings ask for him personally.
He also has a very loud voice when needed!
His interest in the case focuses mainly on the victims and the locations. If you want to see the exact spots where things happened (rather than a vague ‘over there’), he is your man.
Although little stands of the original locations, Philip’s descriptions rebuild the places that no longer stand.
APPEARANCES ON TELEVISION DOCUMENTARIES
Philip has also appeared in many TV documentaries about the case, including ‘Freemasonry Secrets Revealed’ (Discovery, 2005), ‘Efterlyst’ (Swedish TV, 2006), ‘Babylone’ (French TV, 2007), ‘In the World of Jack the Ripper’ (History, 2008), ‘The Real Jack the Ripper’ (History, 2010), ‘Jack the Ripper: The Definitive Story’ (Channel 5, 2011), ‘Find My Past’ (Yesterday, 2011), and ‘A Very British Murder’ (BBC Four, 2013).
Many presenters who have interviewed him have commented on the depth of his knowledge and the smoothness of his presentation skills.
He has taken relatives of Ripper victims Polly Nichols and Catherine Eddowes around the sites for two of these programmes.
SO MANY STRINGS TO HIS BOW
He has also been a guest on several episodes of ‘Rippercast’. Philip has sat on the Council of the world’s oldest paranormal organisation, The Ghost Club, for well over a decade.
He also runs The Ghost Tour of Guildford, has been the custodian of Guildford Castle for 20 years and is the author of several books about his home town.
Please note that the images on this page are the exclusive copyright of Philip Hutchinson.