Well rested after riding around on the Big Bus for hours, we were ready to embarkupon a London Walks tour of Jack the Ripper haunts. The meeting point was at Tower HIlltube station.
While waiting for the tour to start, we ran across an 18th century statue of Romanemperor Trajan. Behind it is a remnant of the Roman wall around Londinium, with parts dating back to around 200 BC.
Eventually we met up with our tour guide, Andy, and headed on out of the City of London and into East London/Whitechapel and Spitalfields, thestomping grounds of Jack the Ripper. Somewhere along the way, we spotted an intriguing storefront, but as we were on the tour (and it was closed), we didn't stop.
The streets of Whitechapel were very noticeably narrower than those of the City ofLondon. It quite clearly showed the contrast between the traditionally rich City and poorWhitechapel. Not far into the tour, we came across a soup kitchen built in 1902 for theJewish poor of the area.
We passed through Mitre Square, where one of the Ripper's murders took place, and itlooks today very much like it did in 1688 - small, with dark narrow alleyways leading inand out of it.
Farther along the tour, we came across an old 17th- or 18th-century lodging-house for the poor. Our guide explained an interesting sleeping arrangement they had for thevery poorest at such houses: the rope. A rope would be strung across a room, and peoplewould pay a penny or two to place their arms over the rope and lean on it, sleeping asbest they could. In the morning, the proprietors of the lodging-house would untie therope, waking everyone up as they tumbled to the floor.
The last stop on the tour was the Ten Bells Pub, which is where several of the Ripper's victims were last seen alive. It's still in business today, and we stopped in for a pint.
Right next to the Ten Bells is Christ Church Spitalfields, which really cements the name "Whitechapel" in my mind.
After the tour, we went around the corner from the Ten Bells to a little Indianrestaurant, where we had some of the best Indian food either of us had ever tasted. Even more impressive, a fellow customer told us that still better restaurants were downthe road. (We were too hungry to go looking for another place.)
On the way back to the tube from the restaurant, we managed to get a glimpse of theErotic Gherkin at night, earning its nickname as it glowed green against the skyline.