thestreetnames

This day in London history: on the 9th of November 1888 Jack the Ripper claimed his fifth and last victim, Mary Kelly, who was found in Miller’s Court off Dorset Street in the Spitalfields area of London.

The Dorset Street of the time, considered to be the worst street in London, was in what was a dirty and crime-ridden  slum area.

The area is now known for the modern and bustling Spitalfields market, a market that began in the 13th century, in the fields that forms part of its name. The rest of the name comes from the ‘spital’ – hospital and priory of St Mary, founded in 1197 by Walter Brune.

Now, 125 years after the first Ripper killing, theories as to the killer’s identity still abound, from Queen Victoria’s surgeon to a German sailor to no one killer at all. There have been innumerable movies and TV shows about or based on Jack the Ripper, from Alfred Hitchock’s The Lodger to From Hell with Johnny Depp as  Inspector Abberline – possibly one of the most famous policemen of all time.