chad

I was doing a net search and saw several Jack the Ripper tours in London. I presume all are fairly "hokey", however, I'm entertained by that occasionally. Any advice? Also, I like haunted houses-how is the dungeon?

londoner

You can't beat "The Original London Walking tours" they have the absolute best tours period including Jack the Ripper. Also interesting if you are into that tyoe thing is the Sherlock Holmes walk. Checkout out their website thay have many offerings. <BR> <BR>I would skip the london Dungeon if I were you. it really is a rip off. I wouldn't even compare it to a good haunted House. Some say Madame Toussands is the same way but I like it much better than the dungeon.

elvira

The Evans&amp;Evans Mystery Bus Tour is really entertaining - not only Jack the Ripper, but they take you to other sites of Murder and Mayhem - and haunted pubs and houses. Unfortunately, last year they added part of the Dungeon on the tour - big yawn. Still, if you don't want to walk around, the bus tour is terrific.<BR><BR>The Original London Walks offers a "haunted London" tour; I'm sure the other walking companies probably offer something similar. London has haunted stuff everywhere (even St Paul's has a ghost/apparition); a tour would definitely hit the good stuff!

Jeff

I don't know if it is still offered, but there was also a more generic crime walk offered by London Walks. It was interesting and touched on the Ripper among other things. <BR>

Jane

I once went on the Ripper tour at night and it was pretty creepy (and interesting) - that part of town is still pretty seedy. I think it was with London Walks. I remember we had about 4 women, one man and one child on the walk. We all stuck pretty close to the guide. No kidding. <BR> <BR>I can't imagine anyone enjoying the London Dungeon. It was a complete waste of time and money. I like haunted houses but this was just cheesy and smelly. I guarantee you will feel silly if you go there. <BR> <BR>But you'll probably like the Ripper Walk and I think they also have a ghost walk of some sort. You can play it by ear when you get there. The daily walks are listed in the "What's On" magazine or at least they used to be.

Ellen

We went on the London Walks tour with Donald R. It was great!!!

Cindy

I took Elvira's suggestion and did the Evan and Evans bus tour. It was a lot of fun, and I did enjoy the Ripper walk. They also allowed time for dinner and a drink at a pub. <BR> <BR>But yes, they did drag us through the Ripper section at the London Dungeon. Ick. Yuk. Bad, bad, bad. For more details, do a search to find my post bashing the Dungeon. Just stay on the bus and skip that part. <BR> <BR>Anyway, I have heard good things about London Walks, too. The reason we did not go with them is that I heard that this Donald fellow has become so popular that the groups can be 100 people. Our bus tour was pretty small -- maybe 15-20 people.

Gina

I did Don Rumbelow's Ripper Walk (through Original London Walks) back in February of last year. Cindy's right--it has become *hugely* popular, and even in February we had well over 100 people in our group. We were literally stuffing ourselves through one particularly narrow passage at the edge of Whitechapel. <BR> <BR>It was still worth it IMO; Rumbelow is a great guide, tells terrific Ripper stories (and is also up on current trivia such as pointing out to us where the fourth "Highlander" movie had just been filming the day before), and is widely regarded by many crime writers/historians as probably the best "Ripperologist" out there. Since then I've seen the occasional Ripper reference in a book or movie and found myself saying "That's not what Don told us!" It also takes you to a section of London you're not likely to go to as a traveler, unless you visit the street markets of East London. <BR> <BR>In general, I highly endorse the London Walks. I've done four of them, and three (Ghosts of the West End, Ripper, and a theatreland tour with the actor Edward Petherbridge which was truly priceless-the stories that man can tell!) were fabulous. The fourth, a "Ghosts of the Old City" walk (can you tell I have a penchant for ghost stories?) was a bit thin and, I thought, tedious in places compared with the others. But a three out of four excellent rating means I'll definitely use them again!