Jack The Ripper and the East End

Museum in Docklands

West India Quay

E14 4AL

Booking Line: 0844 980 2151

Ticket prices vary, to book online CLICK HERE.

15th May - 2nd November 2008

Open Daily 10am - 6pm

As it's the first newsletter and this is the first 'to see' section devoted to London being released to you on this global network, the internet, this seemed like an obvious choice. The now mythical figure of Jack the Ripper was the first time that the media and the police had worked together, and it forced both parties' techniques to be innovative. Jack the Ripper was sensationalised by a media that was beginning to realise it's importance and influence over the general public, and it was not long before the newspapers were fighting against each other to try and produce more sensational descriptions of the murders. He represented the birth of the serial killer celebrity and the creation of such a thing by the mass media.

This exhibition 'Jack the Ripper and the East End' is purportedly the first of its kind. Although we have seen countless books written on the subject claiming to be revelatory, with their evidence to support their various claims to have found Jack's identity, none have been universally accepted as the answer. This exhibition goes to great lengths to allow us the general public to see a lot of this evidence first hand. It will give a lot londoners living in the east end a chance to see how their london experience compares to the east end then. The east end traditionally has always been a tough area with a checkered history peppered with violence and crime, and only in recent times has it been experiencing a renaissance with the popularity of the area within creative fields. It is now one of the most desirable areas of london to live, with house prices at an all time high, and becoming comparable to more traditionally moneyed areas of london.

Suffice to say I don't think it's important to bore you with my opinion on the identity of Jack himself, although I am a big fan of Alan Moore and Eddie Campbells graphic novel From Hell, as we have direct contact with the source 

material for the first time.

I urge you to take a trip to the Docklands, and go and see this exhibition of artefacts and evidence, and perhaps play sleuth to come to your own conclusions. But, most of all, take it as an opportunity to see a glimpse of the east end as it was, and take comfort in the fact that the whitechapel we know now is a much safer kinder place than the whitechapel that was...

[Tickets can be purchased in advance HERE.]