Jack the Ripper
 

We'll be in London in June and were interested in taking a Jack the Ripper tour. Has anyone taken one that they'd recommend or ones that we should stay clear of?
Thanks!

Many positive mentions here on this walk from London Walks. If you type jack the ripper in the text search you'll bring up lots of threads that tout it.

My brother said this walk was the best part of his London honeymoon (probably true since he still talks about the Jack the Ripper tour five years later but the marriage only lasted six months :)

I just bought that tour for August. I hope it's worth it. It was a lot cheaper than some of the others.

The Original London Walks tours are only 5 pounds (4 for older folks and students), and they are worth it.

We first tried them out over 10 years ago. Our first walk was the Bloombury Literary Walk, and we enjoyed it so much that we also took the Jack the Ripper walk and the Lambeth Walk. All were entertaining, informative, and well worth the money.

We've gone on several others since.

I find these discussions about Jack the Ripper tours facinating. I only live a few miles from London, but feel tempted to take a tour myself. (You never tour your home area do you....?). Where do they take you? - around Whitechapel I take it - and are there many of the buildings left to see where all these grisly things took place?

I did three walks with London Walks last year. The Ripper walk is the only one I couldn't really recomend. It was too popular.

That tour had been running large crowds so they provided two guides, Molly & Donald. Donald is famous as a Riper expert and draws a huge crowd. I would have liked to try his group, but went with Molly because she had "only" 70 people. Donald had about 4 times that many.

When that group walked past ours, it straggled on forever.

Even our group was much too large. I believe it would have been more enjoyable with 20 or so people.

Keith

On the website they warn you about not getting tricked by guides who are not part of London Walks. When I went, we did get tricked and joined "Tony", who actually left about 15 minutes earlier. I'm so glad we did! Tony was great; a Beefeater by day, who took the 15 of us on an amazing trip. Occasionally we would see the other huge groups as we made our way through Whitecastle. It was really a memorable experience and Tony was great.

Grasshopper...I am smiling at the typo.. "Whitecastle" and wondering if you were hungry and thinking of those little square hamburgers whilst you were walking through Whitechapel? ;-) :-)

Ha! Orleans, thanks for the benefit of the doubt but actually, you can chalk this one up to stupid! (I have a lot of stupid right now..... leaving for a one month trip tomorrow!)

Hi Grasshopper,
A one month trip that begins tomorrow, no wonder your head is in the clouds today!
Do tell where you are off to. :-)
Have a wonderful time.

Thanks, Orleans. Milan, Trieste, Croatia, Orta and Maggiore and then a week in Zuoz with the wonderful people from the SGFPWLS thread. I am looking forward to bike rides, swimming in the sea, hiking in the Alps, meeting new people, and great food and wine.

lubeltri: I am confused - you say you "just bought that tour for August. I hope it's worth it. It was a lot cheaper than some of the others."

The tour the others are talking about is a "show up and pay the money" tour that you do not need to reserve 4 months ahead. And it is VERY inexpensive. What type of tour did you book?

For £5 (£3.50 students) you can go with company called Mystery Walks (provides a two-hour walking tour). Meet at Aldgate Tube station (Circle and Metropolitan lines) Web Site: www.mysterywalks.co.uk They like to do the tour when it is dark, so it takes place at 8 p.m. on Sundays and Wednesdays, and 7 p.m. on Fridays.

I, too, did the London Walks Ripper tour with Donald in March. It was on a Sunday night and apparently the pubs were closed plus there were at least 200 people on the tour. Primarily we stood in parking lots while Donald told us what had happened. Probably ten years ago I had taken a different Ripper tour and it seemed much more authentic.

I am, incidentally, a huge fan of London Walks and would recommend them to anyone.

We have booked the Mystery Walk tour for Friday the 13th. Cool huh? Hope it is great!

I got this tour from the raileurope.com website. You buy it now and then make the reservation when you're there.

Departure: 7:40pm at 4 Fountain Square, 123-151 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 9SH (between Victoria Station and Victoria Coach Station). Other pick-up points are available. Return to London: 6:30pm.

* Jack the Ripper: This tour takes you to some of the actual murder sites as well as to one of the pubs that Jack may have used to select his victims. You will also hear of life in the squalid East End at the time and learn much more about London's murkier past, but more vivid will be the evocative images of the fear and distress of the occupants in the late 19th century
* The Ten Bells Pub: A typical East End pub made infamous since jack used to select and follow his victims from here.
* Floodlit London: During the evening the tour passes through some of the famous sights of London that look so different at night.
* The Albert Pub: Last stop for the evening. The pub is chosen for its friendliness and a superb choice of food.

http://www.raileurope.com/us/rail/pa...the_ripper.htm

I paid $31 for it. I hope I didn't waste my money! I didn't know it was different than the London Walks tour.

A couple of points..

1. The tour purchased from Rail Europe as with everything they sell is overpriced. You are getting a voucher for a commercial tour which you could just as easily purchase in London for at least 25% less. Do not do any business with those thieves. Because of them, SNCF will not sell to Americans tickets on the Thalys train at their web site. They charge about $110 plus delivery charges to book a trip from Paris to Amsterdam...the same ticket costs 83 Euro to purchase from SNCF with no delivery charges but they won't deliver to the US...claim Rail Europe has exclusivity.

2. Most of the buildings from the time of the Ripper are gone...but all the tours take you to the actual places the events occurred. Somehow seeing a Car Park and being told such and such happened at this very spot does not turn me on.

3. About 5 years ago, the London Walks tourused to end up at the 10 Bells pub I guess it is called where Donald would peddle autographed copies of his book. Now that the pub is under new ownership, it is apparent that Donald and pehaps the entire London Walks organization have had a falling out with the pub management. The tour ends a couple of blocks from the pub where Donald gives his theory as to justwho the Ripper was, he tells the group where the pub is and then tells you how to get to Liverpool St. underground about 2 blocks away.

The commercial tour...well you're talking about $31 vs. $8....part of which is not to have to take the tube to Tower Hill station.

I bought it mainly for the opportunity to walk around the West End at night without getting lost! I've never been to London before, and something tells me studying maps over and over will not be sufficient to make me get around the city well at night.

Ah, well. At least I didn't get any of the more expensive tours. I may see if I can cancel it.

Lubeltri, If it is the WEST End of London that you'd like to walk around at night, then the Jack the Ripper tour will be in the wrong end of town for you.
I believe the Original London Walks has a Westminster by gaslight tour that may be more to your liking, at least geographically.