Jack the Ripper and the East End

Who or what is Jack the Ripper? Man, myth or misogyny?

The East End has almost become a Jack the Ripper theme park. There are barbers, chip-shops and pubs with a Ripper theme plus a controversial museum dedicated to the supposed killer of five (or more) women in Whitechapel in 1888. Hundreds of people tour the area daily visiting the sites of the murders and books on the crimes and identity of the Ripper are constantly getting published.

What does the Ripper industry say about the women who were murdered? What does it say about the people and history of the East End as a whole and what is it about the mystery and crimes of ‘Jack the Ripper’ that draws such intense fascination? Who or what is Jack the Ripper? Man, myth or misogyny?

Oxford House, in partnership with Londonist, have gathered a broad range of people involved in historical research and present-day activity to discuss what Jack the Ripper represents to them, to London and to Londoners.

Fern Riddell is a cultural historian specialising in entertainment, sex, and the suffragettes in Victorian and Edwardian Britain. She is a consultant on the BBC series Ripper Street as their Women/Sex/Music Hall historian and advised on the Royal Shakespeare 2014 production of The Roaring Girl. Her first book, 'A Victorian Guide to Sex', is out now.

Philip Hutchinson has been a Ripper historian since 1990 and he has now been guiding Jack the Ripper tours for over 13 years. He is the author of 'The London of Jack the Ripper Then and Now’ and ‘The Jack the Ripper Location Photographs: Dutfield’s Yard and The Whitby Collection'. Philip has been emcee of The Whitechapel Society for many years and has given talks on various aspects of the case at several international conferences.

Sarah Jackson is the co-author of 'Voices From History: East London Suffragettes' and joint founder of the East End Women's Museum which opened partly as a response to the opening of the Jack the Ripper Museum.

Wynne Weston-Davies trained at St Mary's Hospital, University of London, in Paddington. He studied Anatomy as his specialisation for his Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS). He was a Demonstrator of Anatomy at St Mary's Hospital and also taught dissection of the human body. He has worked as a senior surgeon at Westminster Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, Barts and the Guildford and Godalming group hospitals. As the great nephew of Elizabeth Weston Davies, the author has unique access to his family's history.

Scott Wood (chairing) is an irregular writer for Londonist and the author of 'London Urban Legends: The Corpse on the Tube' in which he discusses Ripper mythology. He is the co-founder and host of the London Fortean Society.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund