The Jack the Ripper Museum – which opened on 4th August 2015 – is located at 12 Cable Street, London, E1 8JG.
The unveiling of the museum’s frontage in late July 2015 caused immediate controversy because it had originally been announced as “the first women’s museum in the UK” when planning permission was sought from Tower Hamlets Council. The skull and cross-bones on the front of the museum was subsequently removed by its owners.
As reported by The Guardian, Andrew Waugh, founder and director of Waugh Thistleton Architects claims he was duped about the purpose of the project: “It is salacious, misogynist rubbish,” he told Building Design online. “The local community was duped, we were duped. They came to us and said they had no money but that this is a real heartfelt project. It is incredibly important to celebrate women in politics in the East End. We really ran with it. We did it at a bargain-basement fee, at cost price because we thought it was a great thing to do.”
None of Jack the Ripper’s female victims were murdered in Cable Street, the crimes took place in the nearby Whitechapel area. In fact, the killings were known as the Whitechapel Murders. The front of the museum has two fake blue plaques: one for George Chapman, one of several Ripper suspects, who lived on the premises for a time, and another for Elizabeth Stride, a Ripper victim, whose body was taken to a morgue near the Cable Street spot.
Former Barclays Bank and Google diversity chief Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe, who is behind the scheme, has said:
“We did plan to do a museum about social history of women but as the project developed we decided a more interesting angle was from the perspective of the victims of Jack the Ripper. It is absolutely not celebrating the crime of Jack the Ripper but looking at why and how the women got in that situation in the first place.”
On 2nd October, London’s Evening Standard reported that Dr. Lisa Mckenzie, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, would be leading another protest by the Women’s Death Brigade, backed by far-left political party Class War.
Official blurb:
“The museum is dedicated to the history of the East London in the 1880’s, providing a serious examination of the crimes of Jack the Ripper within the social context of the period. For the first time it tells the story of the man known as ‘Jack the Ripper’ from the perspective of six of the women who were his victims. As you explore the museum, you will discover everything there is to know about the lives of the victims, the main suspects in the murders, the police investigation and the daily life of those living in the east end of London in 1888. Once you have all the clues, will you be able to solve the mystery of Jack the Ripper?
As you make your way up the stairs, you’ll see details of each murder recorded on the walls. The victims’ names, ages and murder locations are shown, along with newspaper reports and illustrations of the crimes.”
Background of the victims:
Official site | Evening Standard | Londonist | “From Hell…” Jack the Ripper on Screen – article
